The Message
by Pookie2
Summary: "And at the Divide, you and I, we'll have an ending to things."  Part 15 of the "All the Things You Are" storyline. Rated for language, violence, sexual content.
1. The Reunion

"You're sure you don't have any open sores, right?" Mrs. Nash asked.

"Yes ma'am," Layla answered as she sat at the older woman's table.

"Good, now eat up. You look like you haven't had a home cooked meal in a while," she said as she set plates in front of the girls at the table.

"Thank you. I guess I haven't really eaten much in a while… Homesick, I think."

"Well, you're a long way from home, dear."

"You just need a boyfriend," Suzanne said next to her. "That'll fix you up."

"Oh please, Suze," Layla grumbled. "All the good men in the Mojave are either married, gay or way too old for me."

The other courier at the table laughed, then went back to her casserole ravenously. "You need to stop looking for good men then," she said around a mouthful.

"Absolutely not. I told you about Larry, didn't I?"

"Was that the ex-raider?"

Layla groaned.

"No, and don't remind me about that jackass, please. Larry was out of the Hub. My first and last foray into 'bad boy' country."

"Aaaah," said Suzanne. "Wait, the ex-raider wasn't 'bad boy' country?"

"That wasn't the angle he was playing at." Layla shook her head. "Anyway, I think it was about the third time I was paying Larry's bail that I realized perhaps I wasn't pursuing the correct man."

Both couriers laughed, and Layla finally tried the casserole. It was very good, but bitey. She coughed on the first chew, making Ruby laugh.

"It takes some getting used to," said the older woman, looking up as the door opened and Johnson Nash came in.

"Woman, are you giving away all our food to the help?" he said, trying to sound gruff. Ruby laughed.

"Suzy's the one who brought the stingers, and poor Layla's down to skin and bones. She's not gonna make you any deliveries if she keels over."

Nash grumbled, but set a sarsaparilla in front of each of the girls.

"Thanks Mr. Nash!" Layla said, grinning from ear-to-ear. Suzanne rolled her eyes and snuck a drink from her flask. Finishing her dinner, Layla sipped her drink contentedly. Looking up, she noticed Nash giving her an odd look.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. The man shook his head, then went into the other part of the house.

"Ready for a job, Layla?" he called back. The girl leapt to her feet and followed him to the counter.

"Yes sir!" she said, in much better spirits now that she had a full stomach.

"Good." He pulled out his ledger. "You're making a delivery to New Vegas."

"Really?" Layla hadn't been that far east yet. "Have you been there before?"

"Sure have," he said while moving to dig some items out of his safe. "You'd do well to just make the delivery and leave. That is no place for a nice kid like you."

Layla bit her lip, now thoroughly intrigued. How much trouble could she possible get into?

"What's the delivery?" she asked.

"This." He handed her a metal disk. Layla looked at it, perplexed.

"What is this, a betting chip?"

"Yup. Here's the contract." He handed her a slip of paper, which Layla read over. It seemed simple enough; bring the chip to the contact at the North Vegas gate. There was even a big bonus on completion.

"Interested?" Nash asked, still giving her an unsure look.

"Yeah, that's a lot of money." Layla grinned. "Who set up the job?"

"A robot cowboy," Suzanne said, walking up next to her.

"Neat!" Layla responded, wondering what a robot cowboy needed a fancy chip delivered to Vegas for.

"What'd you get?" the other courier asked. Layla held up the chip, and Suzanne showed her a chess piece. "I got one too."

"How many are there?"

"Six," Nash answered, then held out a pen to Layla. "Sign here, and you'll be Courier Six…"

Layla took the pen and signed with a grin. She had a good feeling about this one…

*.*.*

There was something on the kitchen ceiling. Layla couldn't tell if it was a stain or a glob of some sort. Either way, it was gross and it needed to come off. Looking around the room, she grabbed one of the dining room chairs and climbed up.

Even with the chair, she could barely reach the spot. Whatever it was, it was caked on. She started scrubbing at the questionable material, glancing at her Pip-Boy clock every now and then.

She still had a few hours until Boone was due in; she hadn't seen him for two long months. Her regular caravan games with Ambassador Crocker had revealed that 1st Recon was on a sensitive, dangerous mission. That meant he couldn't tell her where they were or what they were up to. The Courier had known the situation would come up, and she'd been very careful not to try and whine the information out of the ambassador. She didn't want to foul up their arraignment by being childish.

1st Recon's current tour of duty was up tonight, and she'd have Boone home for a few weeks. She' d been worrying a lot more since he'd gone back; his last mission included getting electro-tortured and shot in the lung.

Now she was relieved he'd be safe and sound for a few weeks with her. Because everything was safer around her.

She cursed as she kept trying to scrub at the spot on the ceiling. It wasn't budging.

"If potty mouth was a viable detergent, my equipment would sparkle," Arcade said as he walked into the room.

"I can't reach it…" Layla answered.

She frowned at the stain again, then looked over at Arcade, "You should be tall enough though…"

The doctor sighed and stepped on the chair once Layla had hopped off. A moment later he was trying to scour the mark off with curses. He and Veronica were helping her clean in preparation. The remaining members of their group were supposed to meet them later for dinner. The Courier was fairly sure that Cass and Raul had made excuses to get out of cleaning.

Layla grinned as he accused the stain of having poor breeding, then bit her lip. She debated a thought for a moment before she spoke again. "Did you hear they figured out a little about House's cryo-tube thing?"

Arcade stopped scrubbing, then turned a frown in her direction.

"Layla, we've been over this."

The Courier felt her stomach turn a little at both his tone and the words behind it. She thought she'd been subtle, but that was probably impossible after all her prior attempts.

Arcade was leaving for California soon. He'd told Layla a few weeks ago that he was starting to feel useless now that the Legion wasn't as much of a threat. The Courier had promptly found him things to do, mainly going with her to meetings to represent the Followers. She kept finding busy work along with official needs, anything she could think of.

Eventually he'd told her his plans to go west to teach in the Boneyard. Layla had tried harder to find something to keep him here, but he'd taken her aside to tell her his mind had been made up. She'd made a few other attempts to convince him to stay, including finally allowing the Followers to go look at the basement of the 38. They'd wanted to study the medical machinery that House had used to keep himself alive for so long. She'd been squeamish about letting others poke around the man's body… especially after what she'd done. The Followers had been pouring over what they'd found since; a treasure trove of medical information.

Layla had hoped Arcade's interest in the situation would keep him in the Mojave, but it hadn't changed his mind. The doctor must have heard the wheels in her head turning to come up with a new tactic. He stepped down from the chair and set down the rag, then put his hands on her shoulders.

"Layla, I'm going to California. I…" He paused when he saw the tears that welled up in her eyes, despite her attempts to stop them. "I appreciate your attempts to get me to stay. But I'm just spinning my wheels out here."

"I don't want you to go," she finally admitted. It sounded childish and selfish when she said it out loud, not to mention pitiful, which was why she hadn't come out and said it before.

The doctor sighed and let her go. He took his glasses off and cleaned them on the edge of his shirt.

"I know," he said finally. "But I am going."

Layla sighed, then nodded. "I know."

Arcade pulled her into a hug. "You can always come visit me, you know."

"Yeah," she managed to hold back a sniffle. "Will you come back if I need surgery?"

"If it isn't an emergency, and you give me enough warning, yes."

"Okay." Layla sighed into his shirt, then stepped back. She avoided meeting his eyes as embarrassment set in. Eventually she looked at the ceiling. "That stain's still up there."

"I know," the doctor said with a sigh, then climbed back on the chair.

*.*.*

Another group of soldiers poured out of the monorail. Most wore excited smiles, probably looking forward to time off at the Strip. Some, especially the MPs, looked sullen. They were going back to work.

Layla stood on the tips of her toes, looking for red berets. Not seeing any, she sighed and planted her heels back on the ground. Checking the time on her Pip-Boy, she frowned; they were late. She'd been warned there'd be a mountain of post-deployment paperwork at McCarran.

A few minutes later, the monorail came back with another load of troops, and Layla felt a flutter in her stomach as she smoothed her gold cocktail dress. She hadn't worn the thing in a while, but she knew it was Boone's favorite.

Taking a deep breath, she rose up on her tiptoes again, looking for red. After the first few moments of soldiers moving past her, she spotted Sterling. He smiled at her and looked to his side, saying something. After another few people moved past her, there was a part in the crowd and she saw him.

Boone grinned in her direction, and she felt a sudden burst of apprehension, but tamped it down. She didn't bother to wait for him to clear the main station area, instead running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arm around her waist, lifting her up as he kissed her. The Courier was vaguely aware of people thudding Boone on the back, undoubtedly the rest of 1st Recon as they continued on to the Strip.

Finally breaking their kiss, he lowered her back to the ground. She pressed her cheek to his chest with a smile.

"Hey."

"Hey." Boone sounded happy, and she looked up to see him grinning at her. Her smile deepened, and she gave him a squeeze.

"Miss me?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Layla said, breaking away from him and hooking her arm in his, "everyone came home to see you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

They continued outside of the station to find the rest of 1st Recon waiting.

"About time; we thought you were gonna take it to the floor," Bitter-Root said with a grin. He focused on Layla, who was giving him a mild glare. "How's life back in politics?"

"Can I go back with you guys and get shot at again?" Layla answered.

"All right everyone, you know when we're meeting back here," Gorobets said. Boone had explained to Layla at one point that the unit always went their separate ways as soon as they went on leave, but came back a few days before they were due to regroup. The lieutenant smiled at them. "Enjoy yourselves… but stay out of trouble. That means you too." He pointed a finger at Layla.

"No promises," the Courier responded. The others laughed, and she found herself frowning for a moment before joining in.

*.*.*

Walking the Strip would always be bittersweet to Boone. Sometimes he could swear he heard his late wife's laughter in the air. Their best times had been on these streets, and he found he missed Carla the most when he walked them now.

He got the feeling Layla was reading his mind as she looked his way with a sad, understanding smile. He knew she never expected to take Carla's place, nor did she want him to forget. Boone would forever be grateful for her patience with his more melancholy moments. He looked at the flashing neon lights again, thinking about the past and the broken promises it held for a moment more before he brought himself back to the present.

The Courier was wearing the gold dress she'd worn the first time she dragged him out on the Strip for 'recon.' He'd offered to wear the suit she'd found him, but she wanted him to wear his uniform.

Linking her arm in his, she smiled sweetly at him. "You look like a different guy in a clean uniform. All handsome and respectable."

Boone felt an admittedly silly burst of pride at that and smiled. He felt someone link their arm on his other side and found Cass grinning at him.

"Let's make all the other boys in uniform jealous, you heartbreaker." She was in the dress Layla had found in the Sierra Madre; the Courier had declared it far too high cut on the slit. Cass had no such issues with the garment.

Layla giggled from his other side. "We look like we're off to see the Wizard."

Cass started to say something, but Boone didn't hear it as he felt something collide with this back. He couldn't even get his arms free from the girls to turn before someone wrapped their arms around his neck.

"I've scaled Mount Boone!" Veronica cried as she clung to his back, knocking his beret down over his eyes.

"Only one person here has done that," Cass replied. He saw Layla blush as she straightened his beret.

"Do you want us to hang on to a leg each?" Arcade said as he and Raul looked on.

"Giddy up!" the scribe called.

"Stop roughhousing, dear, you're going to hurt yourself," Lily admonished from somewhere behind them.

"All right," the scribe pouted, and suddenly the weight was gone from his back. "Come here, Arcade."

"Keep away from me," the doctor cried, moving to hide behind Lily.

*.*.*

A few hours later, they were on their way back to the 38 after dinner at the Tops. Layla was back on Boone's arm, and Cass was busy going over her gambling losses with Raul.

"You're too predictable at poker," the ghoul admonished. Cass scoffed.

"And you're awful at Black Jack. We can't all make bad calls and magically get just the card we need," the woman said, glaring at the Courier.

Layla chuckled, but said nothing more. Boone had noticed she'd been quiet tonight. Well, quiet for her. The sniper suspected it had something to do with Arcade. The doctor had told him his plans to leave for the west, and that she hadn't been taking it well.

Layla had moved around a lot in her teen years, so she wasn't a stranger to losing friends to time and distance. The group that had come to stay at the Lucky 38 had been more than casual friends, though, and Boone knew the girl had been dreading the time when everyone would eventually move on.

He looped an arm around her shoulders, and she smiled up at him. His gut fluttered for a moment, and he almost blurted out something he'd been waiting to say to her. This wasn't the time or place; not in front of the whole group.

"On to the Gomorrah, Miss Cassidy?" Raul asked, interrupting his thoughts. The caravaneer grinned.

"Sounds like a plan." She looked at the others. "Don't wait up."

"What the hell are you two going to the Gomorrah for?" Veronica cried.

"Black Jack," Cass shot back.

"Surrrrrre," the scribe teased.

"I've got to head out in the morning," Cass continued. "But I'll try not to be a stranger while you're home, cowboy," she said to Boone. Then the two headed off for the other casino.

"I'm going back to Old Mormon," Arcade said. "I'll probably see you tomorrow." He waved as he walked off.

"I've got to head home too, dears," Lily boomed. "Gerdie's got worms." She moved over to pat Boone heavily on the shoulder. "Make sure you come up to visit at Jacobstown."

Boone nodded, and the nightkin headed for the Strip's exit.

"Well, I'm heading to Hidden Valley… We're doing inventory on electronic doodads," Veronica said as she, Layla and Boone made it to the doors of the Lucky 38.

"Oh?" Layla started. "Right now? Why don't you wait until morning?"

"No need. I'm meeting up with one of the patrols heading back," the scribe answered. "I'll be back in a few days."

"Oh." Boone noticed Layla smile as she answered. "I guess we'll see you then."

"Yep." Veronica was grinning now. "See you two later."

Boone watched as Veronica walked off to the Strip's gates. Turning back to Layla, he saw her smiling at him.

"So, I guess we're alone."

Boone nodded and felt that flutter in his gut again. "Yeah."

"Wanna go screw?"

The sniper grinned, deciding that revelations could wait for now. He scooped Layla up and threw her over his shoulder, and headed inside as she laughed.

*.*.*

"Play it again, ED-E," Layla said quietly. They were in the rec room. The door was closed. She didn't want to wake up Boone. It was very late, but it wasn't like she'd been able to sleep anyway.

The eyebot warbled, then its speakers crackled as it played the recording:

"Got a message for you: come find me. You know the way. See the Divide. See what happened, what was done. Your world, stripped bare; all its beasts, its' shadows.

Bring all your weapons. Bring your conviction. This is your road, but when you come, you'll walk it alone."

A set of coordinates followed, and the Courier grimaced as it finished. She hadn't really needed to hear it again: she'd all but memorized it since ED-E had played it the first time this afternoon in her room, right after they'd gotten done cleaning.

The frumentarii she'd been looking into, the one who had been posing as a courier and had given up the Platinum Chip job, the one who'd been keeping tabs on her, had finally contacted her. His trail had gone dry months ago; she had started to suspect he'd been killed. Joshua had told her what he'd known about him in the letters they'd been sending back and forth. She'd done some other digging, but there hadn't been much to go on.

Turns out he'd been setting up for her, and at the Divide, no less. Layla cursed as she started piling all her papers together. The bastard probably wanted to gloat. Well, she'd show up to this little courier reunion, only she didn't think he was going to like the message she had for him.

She'd already packed her things. Joshua had warned her up and down about the Divide: it was supposed to be very dangerous. Layla could feel her stomach turn slightly as she thought about how she'd bent the truth slightly about her preparations. She'd hinted that she was taking Boone with her to keep the Burned Man from worrying. But she was going alone.

ED-E warbled again, and she had to amend her thoughts; she was taking the robot.

"We'll be fine," Layla said as she moved to the door. "I'll be right back." She crept through the hallway, then carefully opened the door to the master bedroom.

Boone was still out cold. Layla looked at him for a moment while turning over the note in her hand, wishing she didn't feel so terrible. He'd be mad, upset when he figured out that she'd left.

She didn't want to hurt him; that was the last thing she ever wanted to do. She'd decided it was necessary to leave all of her friends out of this. It was her problem, her past. It was something she had to deal with on her own.

Taking a deep breath, she placed the note on Boone's beret where it lay on the nightstand. Then, despite how many times she'd decided against doing so, she leaned over and kissed him gently. If he woke up now, he wouldn't let her leave by herself. But Boone only smirked slightly in his sleep, one arm reaching to her side of the bed, searching for her.

Layla bit her lip and felt tears well as she watched, then turned away. If she was going to do this, she had to go now, before she talked herself out of it. Closing the door to the bedroom as quietly as possible, she slung her bag over her shoulders.

"ED-E," she called quietly, and the robot came to her side.

"Come on, we've got a job."

The robot chirped an affirmative, and they made for the elevator. On the ride down, Layla went over the note she'd written in her mind one last time. She hoped it would be enough…

'_Boone,_

_I got a message from someone, courier business. I'm not going to lie: where I'm going might be dangerous. ED-E's going with me, so I'll have some backup. This is something I have to do on my own. I'll be back as soon as I can. I'm sorry._

_- Layla'_

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading, I'll see you all on Saturday! I was worried I wouldn't make my deadline because of Mass Effect, but here I am! <em><br>_


	2. The Silo

I'm sure most of you had figured this out already, but I feel it bears mentioning: this story will be a little different from what happens in the game. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

><p>"Watch out for that hunk of loose metal," Layla called to ED-E as she crawled through the twisted remains of another car. The coordinates on the message she'd received had taken her to the old road that had once led to the Divide.<p>

Well, it still led there, but no one traveled it anymore. It had once been a major supply line for the NCR. Joshua had told her that losing access to the roads through the Divide had been the only thing that kept the NCR from finishing the Legion at the first Hoover Dam battle.

That had to be why this Ulysses had destroyed Hopeville and Ashton. The Burned Man had explained there had been nearly a whole century dispatched to disrupt the supply line.

He also said this massive destruction had not been the plan. She hadn't been to the Divide in a long time; not since before the disaster that made it uninhabitable.

Some part of the Courier wondered if this was just some elaborate trap just to kill her; this guy might be one of the last active Frumentarii. Great Caesar's ghost probably still needed avenging.

She walked by another spray-painted message and shook her head.

_'You can go home, Courier.'_

No. This was personal, even if it was a trap. Something told her that Ulysses wasn't just bent on her destruction; he wanted her to see something. He might think he had all the cards, but she knew a few things about him as well. And if he assumed-

Her train of thought came to an abrupt halt as she crawled out from under a jagged hunk of bus. The way ahead was clear, revealing a path that led to a cliff overlooking the Divide. She walked out until she reached the edge, where her legs gave out.

She had thought she'd be prepared for this. Her ranger brother had hinted, and Joshua Graham had warned. Neither had been enough.

The ground was split apart; gouges were torn into the earth so deep that she couldn't see to the bottom. The air was filled with dirt, smoke and sand kicked up by horribly strong winds. The sky was dark and sickly-looking.

Nothing was left of the growing community she'd for a time called home except a few skeletal, twisted ruins of buildings. With shaking hands, she dug out her binoculars and looked through them, trying in vain to find the tiny apartment building where she'd lived with another courier, a very old man and his sweet granddaughter. They'd picked out the spot because it had been near a flat patch of dirt that Old Man Earrie started making a garden out of.

The last time she'd been in Hopeville, the weathered old man had told her to hurry back; confident that the bean plants would be bursting soon. He'd made her promise to tell him her mother's chili recipe she'd talked about so much.

She was pretty sure she recognized part of her old neighborhood; there was nothing but a huge gash in the ground, like the earth had swallowed it up.

Layla started weeping, despite her efforts not too. It was too much. Everything was gone. How could the people who'd survived the Great War stand to see everything in ruins?

ED-E bumped into her shoulder, whistling softly. The Courier looked at him, sniffling.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm…" She started weeping again. "Sorry."

The robot slowly orbited around her, occasionally knocking into her lightly. Eventually she pulled herself together.

"I'm okay… I-I just wasn't expecting… this." Layla started as she noticed how close to the edge of the cliff she was and scooted back. She wiped her face with the back of her arm and turned her attention back to ED-E.

"We'd better keep moving," she said, and the eyebot beeped an affirmative. The Courier climbed to her feet and looked around. There didn't seem to be anything more than wreckage on this cliff, but she saw what looked like a bunker across the other side of the lip of the canyon.

As they got closer, Layla was able to make out a plaque near the door that read 'Hopeville Basllistic Defense Station – Authorized Military Personnel only.' She hadn't known there was a ballistics base in Hopeville. She'd never gone this far west when she lived here.

Shaking off the thought, she opened the door and went inside.

She had only taken a few steps in when she realized the darkness inside the building was occasionally broken up by sparks of light. Confused, she moved toward the spark, then quickly retreated.

"Oh crap, be careful, ED-E," she called. The robot whistled an affirmative, probably having seen the live wires hanging from the ceiling as well. Bursts of energy occasionally blasted off of them into the ground.

Layla shook her head in amazement; this place looked like it had been hit with a bomb. She backed toward the safety of the doorway and checked over her gear. There wasn't much; she'd packed lightly. No dresses, only her assassin armor. She' d left heavy Brutus at home and opted for Joshua's gun, her shotgun, her energy axe and all the extra ammo she'd been able to scrounge up.

That only left the large wad of jerky and bottles of water tucked in her pack. Aside from that, she'd brought her normal tools and her 1st Recon beret, which was tucked back in its place under her chest plate. She strapped her bag tightly against her, pulled her hair into her head wrap and made sure her axe and shotgun were tucked up flush against her.

"Nice and easy," the Courier said both to herself and to the eyebot floating at her side, then started through the dangerously electrified corridor. There was a door at the end of the hall. As she moved up to look for a switch, it opened.

It wasn't like Layla hadn't seen automatic doors before, but for some reason she was unnerved by the sudden movement. _'Lonesome Road'_ was spray-painted on the wall next to the door. She hesitated as she looked into the dark room beyond.

ED-E bumped into her again, and she let out a nervous laugh.

"Okay, I'm going."

The next room was even more damaged than the corridor. Layla wondered for a moment if they were going to have to turn back. Broken, live wires hung from the ceiling like streamers.

She spotted a control station next to a generator. After a moment of planning her route, she determined she'd be able to make it without getting electrocuted. Hopefully. A few moments later, she let out a sigh of relief as she made it to the back of the corridor.

The control panel had power, much to her amazement. Layla keyed up the computer display. She started to input her usual arsenal of workarounds to get through to the security functions, but found her way blocked. She frowned, trying a few other tricks, but nothing worked. Whoever had encrypted this had meant business.

"We're gonna have to find another way to get in…" she said out loud. ED-E let out an electronic raspberry.

One door, labeled 'Reactor,' didn't respond when she tried to open it. She had the sinking feeling the generator powered it. On the other side of the room was a door marked 'Utility,' which appeared to be locked by a console. Layla had no trouble opening the door, and found to her relief that there were no exposed wires.

The utility room was full of equipment. She picked through it until she saw what looked like a stasis pod on a platform against the wall. Walking up to it, Layla peeked in.

"There's an eyebot in here," she announced, and ED-E hovered over. He whistled as his cameras looked in. "Hold on, there's a computer here. Maybe we can get him up and running." She found the program to open the eyebot pod. She toggled it on and looked up as the pod hissed open.

The eyebot inside fell to the ground with a loud clank. ED-E whistled sadly.

"I know," Layla answered him. "Let me see if I can do anything." She knelt down to the machine and dug out her tools. A few minutes later she was looking over the inner components of the robot and frowning.

"I think his central processor is shot," she said. "His hard drive is fried." She looked around the room. "It probably had to do with the electrical shorts all over this place."

ED-E beeped softly at that. Even if she could get the broken bot back to working order, the data that made it unique would be gone. The Courier sighed, then looked over the dead eyebot.

"ED-E, if you don't mind, I can salvage this guy's zapper." She shook her head. "I guess not, though. You wouldn't have the software or the drivers for it."

The eyebot warbled and Layla looked up at him. "How on Earth can you get that remotely?" There was another set of beeps and she gaped. "You've already received it?"

ED-E continued beeping, sounding like he was trying to pacify her.

"I don't care if this place can copy schematics, they had that tech at …" She groaned in frustration. "I can't tell you." She pointed to the scar on the back of her neck she'd gotten at Big Mountain, and ED-E beeped in acknowledgement.

"Anyway, who's been sending you info packets? Have you let them all in? What if they're malicious?"

Now the robot's beeping sounded like he was brushing her off. "No, I'm not being overcautious. You don't know anything about these other eyebots. What if they're planning something behind your back?"

The robot floated in the air silently for a moment.

"Fine, okay, maybe eyebots aren't known for treachery, but what if someone left some bad code they've been knocking back and forth?"

ED-E warbled thoughtfully for a moment, and Layla sighed.

"Just be careful." She looked down at the robot on the ground beside her again, "So, do you want the zapper?"

ED-E beeped an affirmative, and Layla beckoned him over. The eyebot warbled at her as she started pulling off the plate near his power switch.

"I know, I'll be careful while you're off," she said. "Here we go."

She flipped the switch, and had to fight to keep the robot in her arms. She always forgot how heavy he was when she turned him off.

Heading his warnings, she quickly removed the device from the dead eyebot and switched it with ED-E's regular laser. She stowed the old part in her bag and attached the new with relative ease. A few minutes later, she'd finished and switched him back on.

The robot beeped a few times as Layla screwed his access panel back on.

"How does it feel?"

The robot made a whirring noise, then started playing a recording.

'_Experiment log 369248/b, eyebot duraframe universal interface override system. This is doctor Whitley presiding. We boosted signal gain and enlarged the overflow buffer system. That should ensure 100 percent connectivity and control. ED-E, whenever you're ready. Yes! Success! Ahem… um… Reporting full success on reporting 369248/b. ED-E was able to interface with and override the test panel in under 3 seconds. Great job, team. Now let's start on the proposal for the full rollout.'_

"So that zapper is for interfacing systems…" Layla said thoughtfully. "Who's Whitely? Your creator?"

ED-E whistled happily.

"Huh… wait, you already had the drivers for this thing? I'm confused."

ED-E warbled an explanation.

"The data had been corrupted… but the eyebots here had it? That doesn't make sense, how did they get it?"

The robot whistled.

"You were scanned by the machines that gave you the software?" That was disconcerting. "When?"

The robot made a few evasive beeps.

"ED-E, that's not…" she trailed off as the robot warbled.

"All right… If you say so." She frowned.

The robot rose in the air, then turned toward the wall and shot an arc of energy into it. The scorch it left was huge.

"Oh… Well, I guess that'll be useful for frying our problems too." ED-E chirped happily as Layla got back on her feet. The eyebot pod's terminal had a few other entries on it that she wanted to take a look at. The control panel mentioned a commissary, which sounded like the machine she'd seen near the door.

'_The automated Commissary system has been locked down until further notices. It turns out that the "counterfeit-proof" pay chits we've been issuing to you are exactly the same size and shape as ordinary bottlecaps…'_

Layla laughed. ED-E beeped questioningly at her.

"Nothing. Looks like we could have used the commissary if it worked."

There were a few more beeps, then what sounded like music as the eyebot started bobbing in the air excitedly.

"What's that music?" she asked, and ED-E made a few furtive beeps before flying out of the room. She quickly followed him as he floated to the control panel on the generator. He sent another burst of energy into the panel. Layla thought he'd shorted it out, but a moment later the machine hummed to life.

"Great," Layla grinned. The robot buzzed off, beeping excitedly.

"Wait! Where are you going?" She got up and ran after him. A moment later, she found him in the back room near the commissary terminal. He shot another burst of electricity into the machine, and the panel opened. Now she could see the computer screen and dials to make selections, as well as what looked like the end of a pneumatic tube.

ED-E beeped behind her, and she grinned.

"Okay, let's see if the bottle caps actually work."

She dialed through the options, smiling at the amount of ammo displayed. The US military sure liked to keep their pencil pushers armed.

She ordered a box of .45 ammo, curious to see if the system still worked. There was a sound like a vacuum starting, then a box popped out of the pneumatic tube.

"All right," she grinned, freeing the box from the tube. "That ought to help things."

ED-E chirped happily behind her as she got back to the generator. She threw the lever that had popped up when ED-E unlocked it.

The lights in the room came back on, and part of the wall in front of her slid away to reveal a window. Inside was like a circular room she couldn't see to the top of. There were stairs and catwalks leading to higher levels, all surrounding a huge rocket in the center of the room; a missile silo. Layla watched, mouth agape, as she saw a few intact eyebots buzzing around making repairs to the missile.

The Courier leaned over the panel and angled herself so she could see it better.

"That's the kind of missiles they launch nukes with!" she cried. ED-E whistled.

The reactor door had opened behind her, and she made for the hallway. In her rush, she stumbled over another downed eyebot and ended up on her backside.

"Ow!"

ED-E hovered over the deactivated machine, whistling.

"What? How can you tell?"

The eyebot whistled again, this time insistently.

"Fine fine, let me look," the Courier said. "You know, humans don't go ripping each other apart for good parts."

ED-E let out an indignant buzz.

"Well… yes, I do scavenge items off bodies… I guess you've got me there." She pulled the circuit board the eyebot had indicated. "Come here, and I'll put it in."

A few moments later, she reactivated the eyebot with his newly installed upgrades. Just as she was going to ask how the new upgrade felt, the robot started playing another recording. There were two voices this time. The first was Whitley's:

'_Doctor __Grant__? What the hell do you think you're doing?'_

_'Ah, Whitley, There you are. Orders from Colonel Autumn. He feels the eyebot duraframe project isn't advancing fast enough. I'm to…'_

_'You didn't even disengage his damage avoidance protocols! You're…hurting him!'_

_'Don't be ridiculous! It's just a machine! See here? I've already increased the navigation system's efficiency by 65%.'_

_'Get the hell out of here!'_

_'Fine, Whitley. It's your lab…at least until I tell the colonel about this.'_

The recording ended.

"Huh… Grant sounds like a war crime waiting to happen," said Layla. "Autumn sounds just peachy too."

The eyebot whistled in agreement. The Courier looked him over for a moment.

"Why are these recordings coming up now? Are you controlling them?"

The eyebot buzzed, sounding annoyed. Layla held up her hands.

"Okay okay. If you're not worried, neither am I. Let's just keep going, then." ED-E flew out ahead of her, and Layla followed.

They were in the missile silo now. Layla looked up to see if she could spot a warhead on the device, but it was too far up. She started climbing the winding stairs, hoping to see if this thing was active.

ED-E gave a warning beep as they moved to the next floor. Layla ducked down at the eyebot's insistence. Peeking through the window ahead, she found a sentry bot scuttling around.

"Oh crap."

There was a terminal on the other side of the window, and she crawled toward it. She'd hoped for a better map of the rooms or maybe a way to lock the robot in. What she found was an override to shut down both the machine and this floor's security. She deactivated the robot and peeked back through the window. The sentry bot was still.

"Come on, Ed-o," she said with a grin. They moved into the next room, which had little more than a few empty desks and diagrams of a weapon prototype. There was a set of stairs the led up to the next floor. She started upward, hoping she'd be able to get a better look at the missile. If this thing was active, she'd have to-

Layla gasped as she walked into the room just beyond the stairs; there was an NCR trooper pinned to the wall by a hunk of metal, dead. It wasn't just the dead trooper that had shocked her, but the condition of his body. It looked like he'd been skinned.

Layla looked away, horrified. As she took a step back, her foot skidded on something slick on the floor. Looking down, she found it was a small puddle of blood.

That stopped her; there wasn't nearly enough if the soldier had been skinned here. There also weren't any streaks of blood, so the body hadn't been dragged. He could have been drained of blood or cleaned before he'd been moved, but the puddle was coming from the body. There was some on the front of the chest plate as well. And beyond all that; why would anyone skin him and then redress him?

None of it made any sense. Biting her lip, she moved closer to the dead man and lifted the torn sleeve of his uniform. He was skinned under the fabric as well. She still wasn't satisfied, and pulled her combat knife from her belt to cut open the fabric on the torso of his shirt.

There was skin under the cloth. Dry, damaged skin, but skin nonetheless. She continued cutting until she got to the shoulders, where the exposed muscle started. It wasn't a clean transition, but it looked like the skin had been blasted off.

There was another body further in the room. This one was also missing skin on his face and arms. Parts of his torso were exposed as well. This one wore the remains of a Legionary uniform.

So now there were two corpses missing all their skin, one and NCR soldier, one a Legionary.

ED-E whistled behind her.

"No, I don't get it either."

The robot gave her shoulder a nudge, and she shook her head.

"I know: stop dawdling." The Courier stepped away from the bodies and into the next room. She caught sight of a turret and the terminal next to it. It didn't seem to be activated, so she moved to look at the computer.

Another easy system; she was looking through its programs just a few moments later. Just as she started bringing the targeting systems online, she heard ED-E beeping frantically behind her.

"Wha?" She looked behind her and saw another sentry bot coming their way.

"FFFF-"

She managed to corrupt the targeting controls and dove out of the room.

"Get in here!" She called to ED-E, who zoomed after her. A moment later, there was the sound of rapid laser fire and rockets going off. The wall became very warm against Layla's back. After a very loud explosion, it got quiet.

Crawling over to the door, she peeked out and found the sentry bot exploded. The turret was destroyed as well.

"Huh."

The courier got to her feet and walked back in. The missile was visible from this room as well, only now she could see the whole thing. It was topped with a nuclear warhead.

"Oh… oh that's not good." ED-E whistled in agreement.

"We need to make sure this place can't launch it…" she murmured, though it looked like the silo hadn't been accessed in quite a while.

ED-E whistled at her, and she found him hovering over what looked like a mainframe in the next room. It was offline.

"This is probably the way out," Layla announced to her robotic companion, "which means we'll need to find the codes…" She looked around and found two more dead, skinned bodies. These looked like they'd been killed by the sentry bot that lie in a heap on the other side of the room. There was a huge knife sticking out of the robot's head.

Layla gaped at the blade, a huge bowie knife. She pulled it free of the sentry bot and tucked it into her belt. It'd probably come in handy.

She'd spotted a door marked 'Security' in the silo room. Going back that way, she found the door unlocked. Layla hit the switch, and a blast of stale air hit her as the door opened.

She crept in, gun first. The room she'd entered had a large desk in the back, similar to a Vault overseer's desk. That probably meant it had a control console.

Layla walked over to the desk, then heard ED-E beep behind her. She turned to see two rows of sentry bots on either side of the room. She hadn't even noticed them.

They seemed to be offline, much to Layla's relief. She ran a hand over her face; this place was clearly getting to her. She had to focus if she was going to live through this. Looking back to the desk, she leapt a good foot when she noticed the body on the seat.

ED-E shot over, beeping frantically.

"I'm okay. I just got startled." She pointed. "There's a body over here…"

The body had been a ghoul once, but by the looks of him, he'd been dead a long time. The cause of death wasn't hard to determine: gunshot to the head. The pistol lay near his outstretched hand. The room must have been sealed; otherwise he'd have rotted completely.

"General Martin Retslaf…" Layla read out loud from the computer on his desk. She found what had to be the silo mainframe codes in his desk as well.

Layla started to walk away, but looked back at the general with a frown. It wasn't so hard to understand killing yourself after seeing so much destruction. That thought didn't sit well with her at all.

Eventually, she shook her head and left the room, going back to the mainframe in silence. ED-E was able to input the codes. As she pulled the power lever, she could hear turrets coming online in another room. Making her way there, she found the silo's doors opened and a couple of wayward sentry bots that had been blown apart by the turrets. They didn't seem to be targeting her; the terminal she hacked must have affected all the turrets on this floor.

There were more skinned corpses, all strewn across the corridor. Layla picked her way across them, checking for ammo or anything useful.

"There's the exit," she said, and ED-E whistled in response. Layla looked back at the carnage and sighed, then opened the door.

Just as she stepped outside, ED-E's speakers crackled and a familiar, gravelly voice spoke.

"There you are."

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading, and have a happy St. Patrick's Day!<p> 


	3. The Job

Layla felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. The voice coming from ED-E's speakers was the man who'd sent her the invitation to come to the Divide, to see what had happened here. It was the voice she recognized from holorecordings at Big Mountain, the courier who'd been keeping tabs on her. It was surreal talking to him directly after all that time only hearing him in recordings.

"There's your signal, faint but there. Just like the Bear, voice but no strength. I've heard of your travels; you gave the Bear strength. Now let's test that strength, that conviction, Courier," the gravelly voice continued.

Layla frowned; she wanted answers, but she had to keep her head on straight. The short time she'd been here had already brought up so many questions. She decided to start with something minor.

"ED-E said he's been scanned here by the tech here… Did you do it?"

A humorless chuckle echoed from the eyebot's speakers. "This place brought new life to old tech. Now it tends to itself, and your robot has its pieces. Sign that America's waking up."

Well, that was vague. Layla bit back a sigh. She got the feeling she was going to have to put up with a lot of riddles. Suddenly her irritation surged into anger.

"You've been here before," she said, noting the edge in her voice.

"And so have you," the man responded. "Long ago, you called this home."

"And now it's ripped apart, like it was hit by earthquakes." Suddenly a thought occurred to her, and she looked back at the silo doors behind her. "…Or underground detonations."

"America sleeps in the Divide – giants, beneath the earth," came the reply. "You saw one locked in the silo beneath you. There's more."

This whole area had been a military base, by the look of it. The destruction here must have been from the silos, the nuclear warheads. She was surprised by how much that rattled her.

"Only takes a few of them, locked below the ground, to tear apart the earth," the voice rasped. "You'll see the extent, the miles of it, soon enough. You need to see it… walk it."

That made her stomach turn and only raised more questions.

"For now," the man continued, interrupting her thoughts, "eyes alert. There's still life in the Divide."

"I saw a dead man without skin…" Layla blurted out. There was another chuckle from ED-E's speakers.

"They came here with purpose, to kill, to destroy, to… mark their claim. But they ended up marked men for it."

"There were NCR troops, special forces," the girl said.

"Maybe once. The radiation made them all equal in the Divide. If you saw their corpses, got what they deserved, coming here."

Layla shook her head. He definitely sounded unhinged. "Maybe you ought to just tell me who you are and what you want?"

"I was Courier Six… like you. But not like you, in all the ways that matter. Spent too many years looking for you. Now letting you come to me."

She hadn't expected him to be so forward about it. He continued before she could speak.

"Thought that Chip would end you… You're hard to kill. Thought it would slow you down, let the reaper catch up to you. Yet still you walk."

"If you wanted me dead, why didn't you just try to kill me?" Layla asked, confused.

There was another laugh. "'Try?' Confident. But with your crossed luck, suppose you'd think that way. Let the land kill you… That's something you taught me. Killing is personal – so's vows, promises. Last bit's more important to me than the first."

"Caesar…" Layla spoke up. "Caesar told you not to kill couriers. You were one of his undercover frumentarii, weren't you, Ulysses."

"Not my given name, but close enough. Did your research, looked up the history. Doesn't matter now."

She had hoped her knowledge of him would trip him up, but the man didn't sound surprised. Layla decided to push. "You wanted me here; well, here I am. What now?"

"America sleeps ahead of you, its nightmares filled with quakes, storms. You'll need to find your own path. You'll have to wake America's spears to move on. The way's blocked. You'll need their trigger, the detonator."

"You still haven't told me why you want me here. If you don't want to kill me, why get me to come all the way out here?" Layla asked, trying not to let her frustration show.

"Answers are the only currency I have, and you need to earn them. The Divide will send its worst against you. Might break you, might not. We'll see once it's all over."

Layla sighed; she'd had an inkling from what she knew of him that he'd be cryptic and elusive. That didn't make it any less annoying.

"Will you please just answer me one-"

"Save your breath for the road. Don't waste it on words. We'll talk again, Courier."

There was a buzzing noise, and ED-E's speakers went silent. Layla frowned.

"That's just great."

She looked around the area she'd just entered: beyond the twisted ruins of a fence were a group of small buildings. The destruction here was jarring; debris everywhere, everything twisted and torn apart. She could even see a telephone pole that had been launched halfway through a billboard.

ED-E beeped and gave her a nudge, and she sighed.

"No, I am not starting to regret coming here… yet."

They started picking their way down to the road. There was a building whose door was blocked by another nuclear warhead and a gas station on the other side of the road.

Layla shook her head at the nuke. "I guess they just had these things lying around…" ED-E whistled behind her. "No, I suppose it isn't too hard to see why everything blew to hell."

They walked to the gas station and looked in. There were some useful items, but nothing of note. Layla stepped back out, frowning.

"ED-E… that frequency upgrade… can you scan for that detonator? Shouldn't it broadcast a signal or something?"

The robot beeped an affirmative, and Layla brought up the scanning display the Brotherhood of Steel had worked up for her. There was a signal, but it was weak. She could at least go in its direction.

"Got it… thanks," she said. The robot chirped happily.

As they continued, Layla caught sight of a rock with an old world flag mark painted in red.

"These are like the marks at…" She sighed, then pointed at the surgery scars on her neck. "I can't tell you."

ED-E whistled in acknowledgement, then beeped a question.

"I'm not sure… I wasn't thinking very clearly at the time. They could mean a lot of…"

Layla looked ahead and spotted a man leaning against the building they were approaching.

"ED-E," she hissed, dropping into a crouch, "get down." The eyebot let out a 'sneaky' whistle and hovered lower.

Layla quickly fished the binoculars out of her pack and looked at the figure; it was one of the marked men. His exposed skin was gone, but he was clearly alive. This one was NCR; his uniform was ragged but unmistakable.

Putting the binoculars away, Layla frowned. If this guy was NCR, then why hadn't he gone for help? It had been years since this destruction had happened.

"I… hello?" Layla called out tentatively. The man spun toward her. Before she could react, the man launched himself at her.

The Courier cried out as the marked man slammed her into the ruined wall behind her. She tried to wriggle free, but he had her pinned. Over his shoulder, Layla saw another marked man standing behind them, looking on.

For a moment he just stared at her; then he reached out and touched her face with a quizzical look.

_Skin. You still have skin_, her brain said quickly. T_ry to placate him_. Layla glanced down and saw the name stenciled on his fatigues.

"Sargent Alden?" she said, trying to sound soothing. The man looked up sharply when she spoke.

"I… I can get you help, or maybe…" she stammered, starting to get nervous. "I can help you get back to Califor-"

Before she could finish the word, the marked man howled angrily at her. The hand that had touched her face went to the bowie knife on his belt. Layla started frantically kicking at him, trying to get free.

He didn't get the chance to bring the knife to bear before ED-E physically slammed into him. The marked man clearly hadn't been expecting that; he let Layla go. She scrambled away as ED-E blasted a hole through the man's forehead. Layla was able to draw her .45 and shoot the other before he could reach them.

Layla struggled to catch her breath for a moment, looking at the former NCR trooper, then started searching around his neck. ED-E whistled quizzically behind her.

"Looking for his dog tags," the Courier answered. She found a chain tucked under his shirt. Sure enough: the little metal tags were stamped 'Alden, Henry.'

She check both marked men for anything useful, then stood.

"Wasn't there a shovel in that gas station?" she asked ED-E, who whistled. The girl nodded at his response and turned back the way they'd come. "Let's bury them quick before we move on."

It was stupid: they didn't have time for this. These marked men were dangerous, but they'd clearly been driven mad from what had happened here; both the damage caused to them and the destruction of the Divide. She felt like she needed to put them to rest.

She returned a few minutes later with the shovel only to find the bodies gone.

"What?" she gaped. "Where did they go?"

ED-E whistled, and she frowned. "More must have come this way," she whispered, pointing to a trail of blood on the ground. "See? They must have dragged the bodies."

Layla wondered briefly what the marked men did with their dead, but quickly decided she didn't want to know. For now, she had to continue. The dog tags were still clutched in her fist. She pulled them over her head and tucked the chain under her armor for now.

Continuing, she came across another old world flag symbol painted on a rock near a locked gate, this one white. Layla frowned; there had been a red one near a dangerous area. Hopefully white didn't mean laser deathclaws or something equally terrible.

The lock on the gate popped open with minimal effort, and she and ED-E continued on. The path was clear, until their way was blocked by the twisted remains of a building. As Layla picked her way through the crumbled ruin, she heard someone moving up ahead.

The road was just below the window she looked through, and she spotted another marked man on the street, milling around. Layla hesitated for a moment, still not comfortable with just opening fire.

"Excuse me?" she called, and the man looked up. He let out a howl, then began firing an assault carbine. Layla was barely able to dodge in time.

"That wasn't a good id-"

A thundering boom cut her off, and the wall she was pressed against started crumbling.

"Sweet Christmas!" she cried, and leapt away as the wall fell. A smoke trail led up to another marked man on top the building across the street; this one had a huge rocket launcher on his shoulder.

"ED-E, aim for the one below!" she cried, drawing her .45. She went through two clips before she was able to score a hit on the marked man's face, but fortunately, her pistol reloaded faster than his rocket launcher. The one on the street was dead, nearly evaporated by ED-E's laser fire.

Layla lowered herself to the ground, then poked her head in the building across the street. The room inside was strewn with gore, and she had to cover her nose and mouth a moment when the stench found her.

"Augh," she grumbled and nearly retreated. Her curiosity about that rocket launcher won out, however, and she climbed the planks that connected to higher levels of the ruined building until she found the roof.

There was gear scattered around, and the signal ED-E had picked up on seemed to be coming from what looked like a small laser pistol sitting on a crate. She reached over and picked it up, along with a stack of papers it had been sitting on; hopefully they were some kind of instructions. Before she could look them over, she heard shouts from below her in the building.

Layla looked through a gap in the ruined floor to the level below and saw a marked man with a huge, crudely-made blade in his hand running straight for ED-E. The eyebot fired, but his attacker didn't seem to notice as he slammed the robot with the chunk of metal in his hand.

"ED-E!" she cried as the robot fell out of the air. The Courier then quickly gunned down the man before he could make his way to her. She was about to go down and check on the eyebot, but she heard gunfire coming from the street. She peeked over the ledge and found several marked men on the street.

"Fuck fuck fuck." If they swarmed up the inside of the building, they'd overwhelm her quickly. She looked around for another path of escape when her eyes landed on the big rocket launcher near the body of the marked man who'd been using it.

She quickly reached for it and wondered for a moment how on earth she was supposed to fire the thing. It had more buttons and dials than some of the nuclear reactors she'd seen. Shrugging, the Courier quickly pointed it in the direction of the group on the street and pulled what she thought was the trigger-

She opened her eyes and saw the darkening, sickly looking sky. Layla blinked a few times, trying to figure out what had just happened. Sitting up from her prone position, she found her head was pounding, but no other notable damage had been done to her.

The launcher she'd picked up was next to her, still smoking. Layla suddenly remembered the marked men and looked over the edge of the roof again. There wasn't much more than chunks left.

The sudden motion of sitting up made her dizzy. Blinking the stars away, she frowned and tried to piece together what had happened. Eventually she decided the launcher's recoil must have knocked her down, and she'd hit her head on the broken floor.

"Well… that worked," she said out loud, then realized she was alone.

"Oh!" she cried suddenly, remembering ED-E had been hurt. She took her time standing, but then rushed down to where the eyebot had landed. She left the rocket launcher behind; she didn't like the idea of getting knocked out every time she used it.

ED-E wasn't in good shape. The huge blade he'd been hit with had dented in one of his hull plates. It took her a few moments to get it off and inspect the internal damage. Some of his wiring was shot, but it looked like his power supply, hard drive and processors were still intact.

The Courier rooted around in her bag for some of the extra parts she'd picked up along the trip. A few minutes later she was able to restart the robot.

ED-E hovered unsteadily for a moment, then whistled.

"Are you okay?" Layla asked, and the robot whistled again.

"Good. Let's put your panel back on. It's a little dented, but I got the worst of it straightened."

The robot blew an electronic raspberry as Layla screwed plate back on. "Well, if we find any more of the poor, broken bots, we'll borrow one of their plates."

The robot whistled sadly at that, then beeped a question.

"Oh. Well, let's see." She dug out the detonator and the papers she'd found. Luckily enough, there was a single sheet that had a diagram of the device. It looked like it'd been torn from a manual, and all it really said was that the thing fired 'code bursts through visible red frequencies.' She assumed that meant it could remotely activate the warheads. That was good, she guessed; from what she'd seen outside, there was a warhead near the barricade of wrecked cars blocking the path ahead.

The Courier made her way out of the building, searching the NCR men for dog tags as she went. She considered herself lucky that she'd managed to find two; there wasn't much left of any of them.

Once she'd searched as best she could, she started for the barricade down the road, ED-E following behind. As she got closer, she found herself becoming more anxious about setting off a nuclear bomb.

The barricade was just in front of them now. Layla bit her lip, trying to think. Eventually she realized it was either detonate or go back home.

"Okay… here goes." Layla hesitated again; she really didn't like this idea. After a few more moments of fretting, she finally worked herself up to it. The Divide was already so damaged; a little more destruction wasn't gonna hurt. Beyond that, if she could detonate the bombs here with no one around, they wouldn't get the chance to hurt anyone else. She'd seen more of them scattered around; she'd have to go blow them all off before she left the Divide.

"Okay, let's back up," she said to ED-E, and they moved a good distance away. The detonator wobbled in her hand as she pulled the trigger, and a laser shot out and splashed against the warhead. Nothing happened right away, and Layla started to worry that it wouldn't work. Then the bomb detonated.

"Holy shit!" The Courier's cry was drowned out by the sound of the explosion, which sent debris everywhere. ED-E just barely managed to keep out of the way of a flaming car door as it was sent careening past them.

Layla stared at the new hole in the barricade for a few moments, amazed. It wasn't until she heard the clicking of her Pip-Boy's Geiger counter that she snapped out of it.

"Crap," she muttered, digging some Rad-X out of her med pack and downing the pills dry. She couldn't afford to get oversaturated with rads; since the time she'd almost died of radiation poisoning, she found herself more sensitive to radiation's side effects.

The way was clear now, and Layla led ED-E quickly through the destroyed barricade. They soon found themselves near a set of bunkers. Layla spied one with an electronic lock, which she quickly hacked open.

Stepping inside, she smiled: it was an armory, by the looks of it. There certainly was a lot of very useful equipment and ammo, even a bed in the back. The smile fell from her face as she caught sight of another dead NCR marked man, pinned to the wall by a piece of metal.

ED-E whistled at the sight, and Layla sighed.

"I'm never going to get used to this…"

A yawn suddenly burst out of her, surprising her. She hadn't noticed until know exhausted she'd gotten. As much as she didn't want to stop, she decided she'd have to if she expected to survive this ordeal.

Looking around the armory, she decided it was probably her best bet: it was a sturdy, secure building she could lock. But first the dead man stuck to the wall needed to come down.

"We're staying the night here," she announced to ED-E, who whistled in agreement as she looked at the marked man's corpse. If the metal stuck through his chest was embedded enough to support him, it was probably going to be easier to get the body off than pull it out of the wall. She grabbed his torso under the arms and yanked.

The body came off with a sickly thunking noise, and Layla nearly fell over as it came free. Keeping herself steady, she started pulling dead man to the door.

"ED-E, could you go ahead and make sure no one's gonna jump out, please?" The robot whistled, zooming past her as she opened the door. He beeped the all clear, and Layla dragged the body the rest of the way.

Once she was outside, she looked around with a frown; there was no good place to dig a hole. Going back into the armory, she grabbed a shovel that was against the wall, then walked back out and started digging near the side of the building.

The marked men had to have been ghoulified, there was no other way they could have live through their skin getting ripped off. The Divide was full of radiation from the bombs. It was probably the only thing holding them together.

It felt like hours had passed by the time she got a large enough grave dug. The sun had gone down, so it probably had been. Layla checked over the marked man for anything useful, then gingerly removed his dog tags. Once that was done, she dragged him into the grave and started covering him.

By the time she'd trudged back into the armory and relocked it, she was half asleep.

"ED-E, you'll keep an eye out for trouble, won't you?"

The eyebot warbled an affirmative as he slowly hovered around her.

"Thank you," she murmured, then pulled off her backpack and threw it on the cot; her old embroidered pillow was back home at the 38, hopefully under Boone's head.

The thought managed to make her feel good and bad at the same time. Sighing, she put her axe and shotgun under the bed. She tucked the .45 under her makeshift pillow as she collapsed on the mattress.

"Goodnight ED-E," Layla murmured. She barely caught the robot's response before she passed out.

*.*.*

Layla walked up to the chain-link fence that surrounded a little playground. It was salvaged from two separate play areas that had been found in Ashton by the families of the kids currently playing in it.

She could see her nineteen-year-old self playing with Old man Earrie's granddaughter, Elsa. The girl ran around while Layla chased her, both laughing.

The knowledge of what would happen to this place suddenly returned to her. She still had time to warn them. She tried to call to the children, but no one seemed to hear. Starting to panic, she gripped the fence and shook it, trying to get someone to notice her.

Her younger self looked up for a moment, but the troubled look on her face faded as she went back to laughing with Elsa.

A moment later there was a blinding flash of light, then screams. Everything was on fire. She was on fire. The Divide was breaking apart and falling away. Soon the concussion from the distant blast caught up with the playground, breaking apart the burned remains of those trapped in it.

The blast hit her, and soon all that was left was her flaming skeleton-

Layla sat up on the cot, panting for air. It took a few moments for her to calm down and remember where she was. The reality of the situation didn't help her nerves. Looking over to the windows, she found them still dark; her Pip-Boy read two o'clock.

ED-E whistled at her, and Layla ran a shaking hand over her face.

"I'm okay… just had a bad dream." The Courier lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Even with the dream still bouncing around in her head, she was still tired and worn out. A moment later she felt the rustle of air displaced by the eyebot's hovering as he got closer.

The robot beeped softly and landed next to her on the bed. Layla felt a smile tug at her mouth as she put an arm around the machine.

"You're a good boy, ED-E," she said, then yawned. "I'm going to try to get more sleep." ED-E whistled in response as Layla felt her eyes droop.

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading! Now, I have an announcement: I'm going to start only posting new chapters on Saturdays. There's a variety of reasons, including the chapters have doubled in length lately. I don't want the quality to go down, so I think this will be for the best. I hope no one's disappointed. If it so happens I get ahead of myself, I might post extras chapters on Wednesdays too.<p>

Anyway, thanks for all who favorited and reviewed! I'll see you next Saturday :D


	4. The Launch

Layla fired the signal pulse from her laser detonator at the warhead blocking the path. A moment later, a gigantic boom echoed through the area as the device exploded.

A few large chunks of wreckage came flying their way, and Layla ducked down. She opened her mouth to yell to ED-E just as the hood of a car knocked the robot out of the air.

"ED-E!" she cried, crawling over to him. The damage seemed to be minimal; he'd probably been just knocked offline. She reinitialized him, and the eyebot sputtered back to life.

"Are you oka- " she started, but got cut off as his speakers crackled to life.

"_I can't believe it! Grant actually went to Colonel Autumn and got approval for her damned 'efficiency guidelines.' All experiments will be carried out with the test subject fully active to reduce iteration time. It's barbaric. I'd explained this to the colonel: just because the eyebots don't have true AI doesn't mean they're just machines. I guess results are all that matter around here. Forget things like ethical procedures or humane treatment. I'm starting to have serious misgivings about the leadership around here. _

_At least I've got you to talk to, huh, ED-E?"_

The message ended, and Layla looked at the robot. "Whitely seems like a decent guy… but I guess the Enclave didn't care much about your well-being, huh?"

ED-E whistled sadly.

She shook her head. "The Enclave was pretty messed up, even if some good eggs came out of it," she said with a smile, patting the eyebot. "Are you okay?"

ED-E whistled an affirmative.

"Well, let's not waste the daylight," she continued, and ED-E beeped in agreement.

They came up upon a collapsed overpass, marked with a white old world flag symbol. Layla had determined that the white ones marked the path Ulysses intended them to travel. As she started climbing through the huge chunks of broken walls and road, she wondered if it was a good idea to keep following the path the man had set for her.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, she saw something scurry past her line of vision, disappearing around a truck. ED-E let out a scared beep.

"It's okay…" Layla lied; whatever that thing had been, it wasn't human. "We'll be okay."

ED-E started warbling in agreement, but he was drowned out by a loud roar. Layla dropped into a crouch and pressed against the side of the truck. She'd never heard anything like that roar before.

She couldn't help but think of Irish, the old ghoul who used to live just up the road from her when the Divide had been her home. He'd been a soldier before the War, and loved to tease Layla. He used to tell her there were monsters that lived in the Divide who only came out at night. That was back when she could barely fire a pistol. She'd also been a lot more timid in general.

Once it had gotten out that Layla was having nightmares and wouldn't go out alone when it got dark, the ghoul had eased off. He'd even taken her aside one day and told her if anything real threatened her or the others at the Divide, he'd take care of it.

Irish had proven true to his word when raiders had come to the Divide, looking for an easy score. It probably would have been, if it hadn't been for the ghoul. Not that Irish didn't keep teasing her, but he usually limited it to her inability to shoot straight or how forgetful she'd been back then.

The thought of the old ghoul bolstered her courage as she brought herself back to the present, and peeked around the truck. There was more destroyed road ahead; it was amazing that there was still a path through it. Just as she was about to tell ED-E the area was clear, she caught sight of a body.

It was an NCR trooper, but this one wasn't a marked man. Layla rushed up to check the man's pulse. He was dead; she hadn't really expected otherwise, but had hoped. She could use a friendly face.

Sighing, she pulled off his dog tags and put them around her neck. She found a piece of paper in one of his pockets and opened it:

'_At 0600 hours, Bravo Team will conduct sweep-and-clear operations in advance of the main force. Early intelligence suggests the tunnels are only sparsely populated by small, subterranean semi-humanoids, which are easily cowed by bright light and loud noises. Bravo Team has been issued flashbang grenades for this purpose, and is expected to meet minimal resistance.'_

This mission statement was dated earlier this NCR must have tried to take the Divide back. Something twisted in Layla's stomach at the thought of it. Ulysses hadn't mentioned any normal troops in the area. She had to believe the mission had failed.

She wanted to take to heart the part about 'minimal resistance,' but she had a bad feeling things hadn't been that easy. ED-E whistled, and she looked up to see what he was talking about.

"Woah!"

In an open trailer just to her side was a dead deathclaw, head blown clear off. She looked down at the assault carbine the trooper had been holding and gave a weak smile; the soldier must have gotten him before he died.

Looking around, Layla thought she saw more bodies ahead. Her stomach started twisting as she found more human corpses; two troopers and a ranger this time. She looked them over for injuries; it looked like they'd been clawed by animals.

That could be explained by the deathclaw, except the marks were too small. Could be babies, she supposed. Either way, it was a painful, horrible way to go. She collected more dog tags and tried not to dwell on the fact that whatever had killed these men had bested a ranger. That didn't make her odds look good.

She hadn't taken the shovel with her, but there had to be a way to dispose of the bodies a little better than just letting them rot. Layla looked around for something to burn. A pyre was better than nothing.

She was crawling up a particularly broad chunk of ruined road when she heard another roar. Layla hunkered against the concrete, only sparing a moment to glare at the spray painted message against it: 'You can go home, Courier.'

Glancing back to make sure ED-E was still with her, she saw the robot shaking as it hovered. She was about to ask if he was malfunctioning, but after a burst of fearful whistling, she looked back the way she'd been going.

There was a mound of broken concrete and earth up ahead. Another roar echoed through the area, then the mound shifted as a creature crawled out of it.

It was humanoid, but crawled on all fours. It was covered in dark, scaly skin with clawed hands and a spiked mantle on its head. Luminescent streaks ran along its head and arms. The thing roared again, and Layla caught sight of nasty-looking teeth.

"Stay down," she whispered to ED-E as she pulled her shotgun off her back and crawled up closer. Once she got as near as she dared, she fired the gun.

The creature didn't have a chance to roar again before its head was blown off. Layla grinned at her handiwork.

"I guess they're not so tough," she whispered. "Come on ED-E, I want to get a look at this thing." The eyebot whistled nervously and hurried to catch up to the girl as she examined the creature.

It definitely looked amphibian, but Layla couldn't shake the thought that its general shape reminded her of those spore carriers from Vault 22. The thought was troubling, but she had no evidence as to what they were exactly.

Drawing the bowie knife she'd found earlier, she planned to make a few cuts into the skin to see if she could get any clue to its nature, but she was interrupted by another roar. Make that several coming from other concrete mounds in the area that she hadn't noticed before.

Straightening back up, she readied her shotgun. ED-E hovered around her, beeping warily. A creature sprung from the ground, then another and another until she was surrounded.

Layla didn't giver herself time to think, she just kept firing her shotgun as the monsters kept coming. By now, she'd counted ten of them. ED-E filled in as she reloaded. The blasts from her gun blew them back, so none were able to get too close.

She missed a big, hulking one, and it flung itself at her, knocking her down. She managed to get the barrel of the shotgun against its stomach and fire before it could get its claws on her. ED-E covered her as she stood, blasting the group with electricity as they tried to come near.

Layla ducked down to reload, and it took her a moment to realize everything had gone quiet. The creatures were all dead. ED-E whistled worriedly.

"I know… Let's keep moving before more show up." Layla looked back to where she'd left the troopers: she didn't like leaving them behind. She did a double-take; the bodies were gone. All of them, even the deathclaw.

ED-E whistled lowly.

"I don't know…" Layla answered, troubled. It couldn't have been marked men reclaiming their dead this time.

*.*.*

A soldier clad in riot gear leaned out of a window in the crow's nest and started shooting at a group of marked men storming the building. He didn't seem to notice there was another person coming up behind him. The sniper rifle in the soldier's hands cracked a slow but steady beat.

Without much more thought, Ulysses moved in, stabbing the man in the back. The bowie knife slid easily through the riot gear and into his flesh.

The man dropped his gun with a gurgling cry. He'd caused so much trouble for Ulysses in the past, this had almost been too easy. Things must have gotten more difficult for him since the Tunnelers had shown up. He'd slipped.

The soldier had been causing him trouble since he'd returned to the Divide. At first, he'd thought him another marked man, but he'd been leaving traps and taking careful shots at Ulysses. Almost got him a few times.

They'd spoken briefly, once, and while Ulysses had been careful not to reveal too much of his plan, the soldier had seemed to guess some of it anyway. Since then, they'd been trying to kill each other.

The soldier had stayed at the Divide. Something had tethered him here. He'd lost something. It had been important, enough to keep him in this lifeless wreckage.

Ulysses knew about loss, but that didn't stay his hand.

"Disappointing," he said out loud, even though the man was already dead as he withdrew the knife from his heart. Looking out to the road below, it seems he'd finished with this sniper just in time; someone was emerging from the collapsed overpass onto the road.

Ulysses brought his binoculars to his eyes. It had to be her; the eyebot hovered around her as she slowly made her way.

She wasn't what he'd been expecting, but he hadn't really known what to expect. It changed nothing, either way. He pulled the radio transmitter from his pocket and flicked it on.

*.*.*

"There you are."

Layla started as she heard the voice from ED-E's speakers.

"Hard to kill the Bear; you and your machine survived."

The Courier wondered if he knew about the creatures that had attacked them in the collapsed overpass, but he continued before she could ask.

"There's a lesson here, about paving and intentions. Republic should learn it, if they listened. Trying to do right, never quite getting there."

"You've got a better plan, I take it?" Layla challenged. Here we go with the crazy take-over-the-world schemes.

"Yes. The Bear's too busy carving the Mojave with knives, roads and borders. Stretched thin. They think paper is power, and radio, control. It's all useless.

"You and your machine are all that's left of NCR here. The rest fell to radiation, fire… and what burrows below."

That caught her attention. "What were those things?"

"Tunnelers. Predators. They make their own roads below. The Divide broke their sky, showed them new prey. The Mojave may die a slower death than fire; they will come for its people."

"What do you mean? They're moving?" Layla did not like the thought of those things spreading out.

"Radiation made them, explosions brought them up. Long before the marked men or the Divide's destruction. The Mojave will be easy prey; they breed fast, hunt in groups. Seen them take down a grown deathclaw."

That was very troubling. She'd have to make preparations back in the Mojave once this was all done. An idea started forming, but Ulysses continued, interrupting her thoughts.

"The road you're on, Highroad. At the end is Ashton, and its silo. That machine with you can wake it up, open it, like it did the one in Hopeville."

He'd said the last part with a sneer in his voice. That wasn't the first time he'd spoken about ED-E with disdain.

"Why do you hate my robot?" she asked, curious of what riddle she'd get as an answer.

"Hate?" He sounded somewhat surprised. "No, there's nothing to hate in steel, gold or platinum. Your machine is just a tool. Be more answers the closer you get to home, you and that machine."

"You know I'm not from the Divide… right?" Layla couldn't help but ask. The Divide had only been a community for a few years.

"Home isn't where you're born, you taught me that. Wouldn't have known the Divide if it hadn't been for you. You were the first who was willing to make the trip, a hard road.

"Can't have been just a job, was more than that for you," Ulysses continued. "It grew from what you did. Chance for a new nation, new beginning. Could have breathed new life into the Mojave, bridging east and west, like the dam.

"But NCR saw the worth, staked a claim. And where the Bear clings, the Bull comes, bringing messages, some by blade… others by Courier."

"So you've been here," Layla said, sounding unsurprised. "Caesar sent you with the ground force that attacked?"

"No, I came here during my travels. Walked the road after setting Caesar down his. May have been different if I never told him about the Dam."

"Wait, are you trying to tell me-?"

"Now you walk west until the sun dies," he cut her off, "and I'll be waiting."

The sound cut out with a buzz, and Layla sighed. ED-E warbled, sounding annoyed.

"Of course not. You're much more than a 'tool,'" She soothed, then let out a breath. Ulysses had a talent for making more questions than answering them. "I guess we're heading on to Ashton…"

The robot beeped, and Layla started down the road. They were traveling a destroyed highway; the path they stood on was very far off the ground. Peeking over the rail had revealed a dizzying drop.

Eventually tearing her gaze away from the amazing, if not scary view, she looked at the path before her; there were tall buildings along the roads, some completely gutted, some mostly intact. One partially fell over on the road ahead.

As she looked in that direction, she caught sight of another warhead. Fishing out her binoculars, she confirmed the sight, and a few marked men milling around it.

Taking cover behind an overturned truck, she leveled the laser detonator at the warhead. At least it would be quick for them. After a few seconds of bathing the warhead with signal pulses, the device exploded.

Looking again, she found the warhead was gone, as were the marked men. She chewed her lip as she looked at her Geiger counter, continuing past the burning wreckage.

There was an arrow painted on the side of the building leaning over the road, pointing up. Layla looked along the path the arrow indicated, and saw a series of handholds on the wall leading up to a clear area above.

There was a fire going up there; she could see the smoke from where she stood. If she could get up there without killing herself, it would be a good spot to take a rest. Assuming no one was up there already.

Considering a warhead had just gone off not very far away, she assumed anyone up there would have been startled into action already. Ignoring that this was a bit reckless, she started climbing.

ED-E whistled worriedly as he hovered upward with her.

"I know. Just zoom up and take a peek to make sure, would you?" The robot did as she asked and whistled back the all-clear a moment later.

"Good," she replied as she reached the top of the handholds. Picking her way carefully, Layla crawled over the wrecked walls to the flat, intact section of floor. It was clear someone had set up shop here; there were a few old sniper rifles in one corner as well as ammo boxes and a pile of old army rations.

She started as she noticed a body hanging out of a window. Moving without thinking, she grabbed the person under the arms and pulled them back in. Losing her footing, she fell over, and the body landed on top of her.

"I'm okay," she said to ED-E as he zoomed over. She still had her arms around the person, and the front of her armor was now covered in blood. The person had been stabbed in the back. It had to have been recent if the blood was still wet. Layla pulled the helmet off; there was a chance they were still alive.

The Courier let out a ragged gasp, it was Irish. She'd recognize that bright shock of orange hair anywhere. She checked his pulse, but he was already gone. She'd missed him by less than an hour. He'd been alive this whole time.

ED-E beeped worriedly as she began crying.

"H-he was alive," Layla whimpered, wrapping her arms around the old ghoul. "If only I'd known."

This destruction had been hard to look at, but it all had been so twisted and alien, it hadn't hit home. Irish was the first recognizable thing she'd seen destroyed. And she'd just missed him.

She didn't know how long it took her to pull herself back together. Eventually she was able to stop the parade of faces she'd known from the Divide marching through her mind and crawl out from under the ghoul.

His armor looked like vet ranger armor, but the markings weren't NCR. Picking up the helmet, she found a shield with a horse painted on it. Old World; it must have been his old military gear. She'd never seen it when she'd known him. He probably kept it for an emergency.

The thought made tears well up in her eyes again, but she was able to keep them down. Taking a step toward the medical supplies Irish had gathered, her legs gave out on her, and she fell over.

ED-E beeped frantically as Layla's head spun. She felt him nudging her as she closed her eyes, willing the spinning to stop.

"I-I'm okay," she whispered a moment later as the spinning stopped. "I… oh crap." She looked down at her Pip-Boy, bringing the menu to her vital sign readout.

"Ahhhh fuck, too many rads," she grumbled. "At least we're somewhere safe for a…" Her gaze lingered on Irish, and she started weeping again.

Poor ED-E zoomed around, beeping worriedly. Sniffling, Layla dug a bag of RadAway out of her pack and hung it from a piece of rebar sticking out of the wall.

"I just need to… I need some RadAway," she managed to get out for the robot's sake. "And we'll burn him." She nodded at Irish. "I don't want him disappearing too."

The Courier stood on shaking feet and dragged Irish's body to the center of the cleared area. She went through his pockets for anything she could use, then put his helmet back on and gathered all the wood from the boxes scattered around.

With the help of the garbage can fire that was already going, she soon had the ghoul's pyre lit. She sunk down against the far wall and grabbed the IV of RadAway. With shaking hands and several misses, she managed to get it into a vein, then she leaned her head against the wall and cried.

Eventually, Layla fell into a light doze. Her half-remembered dreams of Irish teaching her how to properly hold a pistol were interrupted as ED-E beeped at her.

"Hn?" she murmured, then noticed the bag of RadAway was about to run out, "Oh, thanks." She yanked the needle out with a grimace, then sighed. Irish's pyre would take a while longer, and frankly, she needed to rest for a little bit. This had been a lot to take in.

"ED-E," she called, "do you want me to install that other circuit board I found?"

The robot warbled an affirmative and hovered over. It didn't take long for her to install the part and switch the little robot back on. ED-E rose in the air again.

"What's this one do?" she asked. ED-E started to respond, but his speakers crackled.

"_Sir, with all due respect, I think this is a mistake. We're close to a breakthrough with the Duraframe eyebots, I can feel it! Yes, sir."_

"_Yes sir, I understand we need the Duraframe assests for the Hellfire armor, but- No sir. Yes sir, I understand, sir. I'll tell the team to start disassembling the Duraframe eyebots." _

_There was a rustling noise and the sounds of beeping before the man continued speaking. "…ED-E? You little rascal, were you listening in again? I think those videos you watch are a bad influence on you. How much did you hear?"_

Now there were sad beeps.

"_Hmm… Didn't Dr. Grant say she upgraded your navigational systems? I think I have an idea. How would you like to be just like RALPHIE?"_

The recording stopped, and ED-E let out an embarrassed beep.

"RALPHIE? Huh?" Layla asked, and the robot made a dismissive warble.

"Do you record everything?" the Courier continued.

ED-E beeped slyly.

"Really?" Layla gaped. "Well, I'd better be careful what I say to you, huh?

The robot warbled reassuringly, then beeped a question.

"No, ED-E, I don't want to hear your recordings of 'human mating calls.' That's just… wrong."

He beeped coyly at that.

"Edward, you haven't been recording any of the times Boone and I have been… intimate… have you?"

The robot beeped a negative quickly, and Layla leveled a finger at him.

"If I find out otherwise, you're getting put in the creepy old storage room at the 38."

ED-E let out a nervous beep.

"Anyway, what did the circuit board do?" Layla asked. The eyebot bleeped an answer.

"Well that's handy. Wanna look over my pistol?"

ED-E beeped again, and Layla drew her .45 from her hip and set it down. "Be careful with that. It was a gift."

The robot blew a raspberry at her, and she frowned.

"You wouldn't have liked Utah; it was all nature. You're not a fan of nature."

The eyebot's manipulation tools popped out, and he started working on maintaining the weapon. He buzzed at Layla.

"Fine, next time I go, you can come too. Okay?"

The eyebot warbled as he worked, then announced a few minutes later the gun was finished.

Layla shook her head, taking her gun back. It looked pristine; Joshua would be pleased.

"Thanks," she said, then looked over at Irish's pyre. The fire was burning low. She sniffled as she realized he was gone for good now.

"Let's go," she whispered, and ED-E bumped into her shoulder. She gathered her things, climbed down the handholds and continued on the road again.

Layla's heart felt like it was filled with lead. She'd already mourned the people of the Divide when she'd first heard of its destruction. But being here, seeing what had happened re-opened all of her wounds. Never mind finding out that Irish had been alive.

Something else was troubling her as well: from the way he'd been talking, it sounded like Ulysses hadn't brought her here to gloat over destroying the Divide. That bothered Layla; she'd been so sure he'd done this. Why else have her come back?

Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw something moving up ahead. Layla gasped and dove behind a chunk of upheaved road. ED-E started whistling, but Layla slapped a hand over his speaker and pulled him down with her.

"Okay, now I regret coming here," she whispered to the robot. She peeked out again and confirmed what she saw: two full-grown deathclaws were meandering along the road. Ducking back behind cover, she closed her eyes and breathed a moment and decided she wasn't going to freak out.

_Making the decision to keep a cool head isn't also going to grant you the ability to snipe the things from this distance_, her mind snapped at her. Chewing her lip, she drew her .45 and hoped Joshua Graham was thinking of her; she'd need all the help she could get.

Just as she started to draw a line on the closest deathclaw, she ducked back down. ED-E whistled quietly at her sudden movement.

"Just hedging my bets," she whispered, digging her 1st Recon beret out of her armor and put it on. Now she was as prepared as she was going to get.

Jushua and all of 1st Recon must have been thinking good thoughts at her; she blew the deathclaw's head off with her first shot.

She didn't give herself time to think about it, instead firing at the other one. She scored two good hits before it figured out what was happening and started charging for her.

"Fuck fuck fuck!" she cried, vaguely hearing the panic in her voice as the monster came closer. "ED-E!" The eyebot started blasting the creature with electricity as she reloaded and kept firing.

The deathclaw wasn't far from her now, and it coiled to pounce. Just as it sprang from its crouch, Layla shot it in the face. The Courier was just barely able to dodge the creature's body as it crashed to the ground, dead.

Panting, Layla stared at the thing. She'd just taken out two deathclaws, alone. Well, almost alone.

"Thanks, ED-E," she whispered. The robot knocked into her shoulder again. Layla grinned a little as he warbled.

"Yes, I'll tell everyone you saved me from a bunch of deathclaws," she answered. Moving away from the bodies, she saw an intact trailer on the road.

"Let's just peek in here a sec. I think need a breather," she announced. ED-E beeped an agreement.

The trailer had a few useful looking items in it, including more of those army rations. Layla felt her stomach growl as she looked at one.

"Boneless pork chop…" she read out loud. Opening it, she found a whole bunch of stuff inside. Before she knew it, she was working the 'Flameless Ration Heater' while she ate the crackers that had been in the package as well.

Soon she had a warm meal and a piece of cake. Pocketing the candy-coated chocolate things, she grinned at ED-E.

"We are picking up every one of these things we can find, okay?"

The robot beeped as the Courier started stuffing the remaining packages into her bag. As she picked up the last one, she found something below it.

"Huh…"

It was a snowglobe. It was cracked, emptied of its water and little floating sparkles and looked like it'd been scorched. It read 'Lonesome Road.'

Layla put it in her pack, feeling her lunch grumble in her gut. She'd never look at a snowglobe without feeling guilty again. Mr. House-

Something impacted on the top of the trailer, interrupting her thoughts. Whatever it was, it was heavy. A moment later, she heard growling. Deathclaw growling.

She froze, thinking for a moment that the creature might move on if she stayed still.

_It can probably smell your 'lunch' a mile away_, said her brain. That was probably very true. She was fucked.

She caught sight of another warhead as she looked out the trailer's window. Biting her lip, she drew her detonator and lit the device up.

The explosion sent out a heat wave, and the trailer suddenly got a lot hotter. Once everything was quiet again, Layla peeked out of the trailer and found the monster was gone. Apparently all it took to scare away a deathclaw was a nuclear explosion.

Sighing with relief, she motioned for ED-E and ran for the end of the road. The path that led off the highway twisted up to what had to be the silo.

This one hadn't fared as well as Hopeville; most of the building was exposed. A control station similar to the one that had opened the other silo was standing next to the door.

ED-E hovered over and activated the controls. The robot beeped at her that the station was ready.

"All right, here goes," she said, then threw the lever. Warning klaxons started blaring, and a loud rumble echoed through the area.

Hearing a noise from further away, Layla saw a panel open in the ground. Then a missile, complete with a nuclear warhead, shot out of the hole. It flew into the air, then arced back toward the ground, landing further ahead in the Divide and sending a gigantic mushroom cloud into the sky.

Layla watched in complete horror.

* * *

><p>I hope you enjoyed the chapter. This story is proving to be complicated to throw together, but we're doing it! Now, I have a birthday party to prepare for... mine (and my editor got me the Ultimate Edition of New Vegas :3).<p>

**Update: 4/6/12 - The next update won't be until April 18th. There has been a death in my family. Everyone have a good and safe Easter; always cherish what you have while you can.**


	5. The Tunnelers

Thank you for all for waiting, I said Wednesday, and here we are (with more than an hour to spare :s)! Please enjoy!

* * *

><p>"ED-E," Layla gaped. "Where did that missile detonate?"<p>

The robot whistled a response. The Courier felt a little better that it had still been within the Divide, but the thought that there could be other survivors like Irish where that bomb had gone off made her stomach churn.

She hadn't known the controls she'd activated would set off the missile; how could she? The last time she'd thrown a lever in one of the silos, it had just opened everything up, not launched a damn nuke.

It took her a while to notice ED-E bumping into her shoulder, whistling worriedly.

"I… I'm okay…" she lied. "We're going to have to check that area out before we leave… Okay?"

The robot beeped an affirmative. Layla looked out at the area where the missile had landed; the mushroom cloud had nearly dissipated by now. She shook the worry away; there was nothing she could do about it for now. The door next to her was unlocked. Opening it, she found an open elevator platform waiting for them.

"Come on," she called to ED-E, who zoomed over as she stepped onto the platform. The control board was undamaged, and she flipped the lever. The elevator lurched and started descending. Layla looked around nervously; the station hadn't fared well from the launch. She felt tremors in the building and heard distant explosions.

Just as she was starting to wonder if taking the elevator had been a mistake, one of the wall panels they passed by exploded, knocking Layla off her feet as the elevator rocked violently.

The Courier rubbed her head where it had banged against the ground. ED-E whistled at her, and as she looked up to answer, she saw two tunnelers crawling through the exploded panel as the elevator passed by.

"Behind you!" she cried, scrambling to her feet as the eyebot turned and blasted the monsters with his zapper. By the time she'd gotten her .45 out of its holster, two more tunnelers had crawled up onto the platform.

"Back to back!" Layla shouted to ED-E, who zoomed over and faced the opposite direction. She was able to take down one of the creatures immediately, but the second didn't seem to notice the bullets she put into it. Once it had gotten in range, it reared up and swung. Layla tried to dodge, but it raked its claws across her shoulder and chest. The talons cut through her armor like it was paper.

The wound burned, but she didn't have time to dwell on it as two other tunnelers crawled onto the platform. The one attacking her reared back to swing again, but ED-E knocked into it. The robot zapped it before it got the chance to get back to its feet.

Layla took the opportunity ED-E had given her to pull proton axe off her back. The thing was meant for robots, but she'd never shoot all these things before they got to her.

"Keep above me," the Courier yelled to ED-E as she activated the weapon. Purple crackling energy danced across the blade. Layla started swinging the axe wildly into the horde. It might not have been intended for the creatures, but damn if it wasn't effective; she was cutting through them before they had the chance to react.

By the time she'd lopped the head off a hulking tunneler who'd nearly gotten past her axe blade, she finally realized the elevator had stopped moving. Layla strapped her axe to her back and made her way to the door.

Just as she passed through the doorway, the room was rocked by another explosion. The silo was coming apart. Deciding that stopping to see the sights probably wasn't the best idea, she started running.

ED-E followed closely as she ran a quick loop around the building, which was similarly laid out as the first silo. Layla heard ED-E whistle and turned to find him starting down a staircase she'd missed. She followed him down as the explosions became more frequent.

The destruction was worse the lower they went, but there was still a clear path. Layla didn't give herself time to think as they continued running; it was looking less and less likely that they'd find a way out of the building alive.

Layla came to an abrupt halt. Up ahead, the walkway suddenly ended. She barely registered another fallen eyebot on the floor before a particularly bad tremor shook the building. Bracing herself on the railing, she saw a set of stairs a level below, leading further down.

She didn't have much time to come up with a plan before an even stronger explosion sent her over the edge of the walkway.

She landed on her bad leg. It hurt like hell. She heard ED-E whistling frantically as she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. Before she could get up, something landed on her back, knocking her down again.

Layla looked up to find the destroyed eyebot on the ground next to her. She brushed it off, stopping long enough to shove the thing's circuit board into her bag before examining her throbbing leg.

The good news was it didn't appear to be broken, just sprained. She could live with that. She pulled the cork off a stimpak with her teeth and jammed the needle into the affected muscle.

ED-E whistled again, and Layla climbed to her feet.

"I'm ok-"

Another explosion cut her off, and she barely managed to scramble away from falling debris. She ignored the pain in her leg and ran down the stairs. The landing led to a tunnel of broken concrete and dirt where the silo seemed to end.

Just as Layla started to think she'd be buried in rubble, she caught sight of what appeared to be the door of another building. Without hesitating, she opened the door and ran through.

Layla thought for a moment that she was having radiation poisoning issues again; the room was crooked, tilted at an odd angle. It wasn't until she heard the loud, angry creaking of the building that she realized this structure wasn't standing up straight.

"We need to hurry," she whispered to the robot, who warbled an agreement. Layla didn't think the building was about to come down on them, but as she heard the screech of bending metal, she figured they shouldn't dawdle.

Sprinting up the stairs, Layla nearly missed the tunneler running toward her.

"Whoa!" she cried, throwing herself to the side as the creature leapt at her. She drew her pistol and fired wildly. She caught the creature in the head, but it didn't seem to notice as it lunged again.

She kicked at it as it reached her, catching it in the chest. It didn't fall back, but stopped its advance. The thing snarled and reached for her leg, but Layla unloaded an entire clip into its face before it got the chance to do any damage. She kicked the carcass away and scrambled to her feet as she heard ED-E whistling frantically down the hall.

Rushing to meet the robot, she found it getting batted around by two more tunnelers. Layla saw red and started shooting as she rushed forward, grabbing the bowie knife off her belt as she got closer. By the time she'd reached the group, one of the creatures was shot to pieces. The other attempted to tackle her, but she shoved the bowie knife into its forehead.

The monster let out a horrible wail, then flopped over. ED-E rose into the air and whistled.

"Oh." Layla shook away the last of the adrenaline rush. "Don't worry about it. You've saved my can more times than I could count."

The eyebot warbled and knocked into her shoulder. She grinned, about to answer, when the floor lazily swayed under her feet. She suddenly remembered she was in a building threatening to topple over and ran for the closest door.

A few moments later she stumbled out onto the road. Turning back, she saw the building they'd come through leaning against the highway above. The door they'd just come out of was probably a bathroom door by the look of the pipes in the walls facing them.

Layla let out a breath, glad they were out of the structure; there was no telling when it could let go and crumble.

"ED-E," she said with a shaky laugh, "we're going to have to find another way back."

The robot warbled, but was cut off by a burst of static. The Courier turned to ask him what was wrong when a voice came from his speaker.

"Hopeville, Highroad, Ashton, all tiny cracks in the earth compared to the road carved ahead. Before you… This is the edge of the Divide." Ulysses sounded angrier than before. "Your history, what you've done, all bare. The roads you've walked, the ruin you've caused. Caesar's Legion, ruined."

"Caesar's dead," Layla blurted out. How could he not know that? The man was quiet for a moment before speaking again.

"Name's died twice in history. The West will thank you, but the East wont. Tear themselves apart, back to tribes, maybe."

"I thought you'd be a little more upset about it," she couldn't help but say. He sounded so calm.

"Caesar would be history's hypocrite if he were angry. I'm not either. Seems you just proved his philosophy to him; if he were strong enough, he'd be alive, and we wouldn't be talking."

Layla couldn't help but snort at that. "There were some flaws in his plan."

Ulysses sounded somewhat amused as well. "Don't care much for the Legion changing hands, but glad you killed the Legate. Caesar could command him. Once he was gone, Lanius was off his leash. Caesar was never good at picking Legates. The Burned Man shows it as well."

The Courier frowned, opening her mouth to speak, but Ulysses beat her to it.

"Joshua Graham answered for his failure. Caesar had him burned and cast into the Grand Canyon. Watched the flames trail all the way to the bottom. Somehow he walked away, out of Caesar's gaze. Walked out of one hell to another. When one is ruined like Graham was, sometimes the only place left is home. He went back to New Canaan, Casear's anger written on him like a book.

"Caesar's orders to the frumentarii were to look for him, find him, kill him. Sent me to push the White Legs against him."

"_You_ sent the White Legs to attack New Canaan?" Layla asked.

"Caesar wanted Graham dealt with, and I was ordered to go."

"You… monster!" Layla cried. "You killed an entire town just to get to one man?"

There was a chuckle over ED-E's speakers. "Did what was needed. What I was told to."

"No you didn't," the Courier bristled. "Joshua's still alive, and he sent the White Legs back to the Great Salt Lake, broken." Layla bit her lip hard. She probably shouldn't have said that.

There was another laugh. "Seems Graham's ability to manipulate did not burn away. Heard the White Legs had fallen, didn't know you had been there. Should have guessed."

"Why didn't you go after Graham directly?" Layla demanded, "instead of a whole town of innocent people?"

"Didn't try," Ulysses answered plainly. "Caesar wanted the White Legs to do it. Could have killed him, but it wouldn't have changed anything."

"Hmph." Layla didn't mean to make the noise, but this guy was pretty full of himself to think he could have killed the Burned Man so easily.

The humor in Ulysses' tone turned ugly as he continued. "Might kill to finish a job, but not the only one. You murder your way into history. Friends, enemies, employers."

"House…" Layla felt her usual burst of regret and guilt when the man was brought up. "… didn't give me much of a choice."

"House spoke through machines. Can judge a man by his messengers. Sometimes the messengers judge them. Wonder what will happen to the tribes, the 'families.' We'll see."

His tone was oddly sad as he spoke, but his resolve seemed to come back, and he continued.

"What you did was for the best. Can't bring the old world back. Killing him was mercy, not cruelty. Either way, his history has ended. You still need to find out the truth of yours. I'm waiting for you, Courier."

As the transmission ended with a burst of static, a volley of flares went up into the sky, and Layla ducked behind a chunk of concrete. Someone was clearly ahead of them. For a moment Layla thought Ulysses might have agents in the Divide, but as she peeked over the concrete, she saw marked men running their way.

ED-E started firing off bolts of electricity at them as Layla pulled her .45. She found it hard to concentrate as she took aim; the talk she'd had with Ulysses had irked her more than she'd expected. That monster had destroyed the New Canaanites just because Caesar's dick was bent out of shape over the Burned Man.

Sallow was right to be worried about Graham's abilities, even if the man wanted nothing to do with the Legion. Ulysses probably should have had more regard for him too.

ED-E warbled at her, and she looked up in surprise. The marked men were all dead.

"Oh I uh…" She looked over the bodies, confirming several head shots she'd apparently made. She turned to the robot and patted her 1st Recon beret.

"They must be thinking about me again," she said. ED-E gave a sarcastic-sounding warble, and she half-heartedly swatted at him.

"Hey, I can have you disassembled for parts, you know," she said. The robot gave her an electronic raspberry.

"You wouldn't leave me here all by myself," she said, and ED-E relented. "We'd better keep going before something else nasty happens."

They were getting close to where Layla used to live, a thought that made her feel good and horrible at the same time. She was pretty sure the whole area had been destroyed, swallowed by the earth. But she still wanted to look and see if anything was still intact.

As she continued, lost in thought about the people she'd left in the Divide, a poster on the wall next to her made her stop.

"Hey…" Layla said, as she looked closer. "I've seen this before. It was at…" She sighed and pointed at the scar on her neck. "I can't tell you. Anyway, is this the same RALPHIE in your audio files?"

ED-E started beeping rapidly. Layla held up her hands at the robot.

"Woah! It's okay, I'm not judging." She grinned. "So you were traveling like RALPHIE?"

The eyebot whistled tentatively. The Courier laughed.

"Don't be embarrassed," she soothed. ED-E warbled delightedly and started playing what had to be the theme song.

"I bet I can get it from…" she sighed, "I can't tell you." Dr. Mobius might have a copy of the vid, she'd seen the RALPHIE poster in his old suite at Big Mountain.

Despite her inability to complete the thought out loud, ED-E seemed excited at the prospect of getting to see the movie again. Layla smiled.

"When we get home, I'll see what I can do."

The eyebot orbited her, beeping excitedly.

"Well," Layla eventually said, "we'd better fly far and fly fast if we want to make it out of here alive."

ED-E whistled, and they continued.

The road wound lower, and soon they found what looked like a cave opening.

"I think it was a subway," Layla murmured. "I remember this…"

ED-E started to whistle in response, but a burst of static interrupted him.

"You get closer to your home and what you did." Ulysses definitely sounded angry this time.

"What are you talking about?" Layla asked, confused. "I didn't do any-"

"Lies, even in light of your ignorance. This destruction, this death and spoil, this was your doing, Courier."

"That doesn't make any sense," she responded.

"You delivered a package here, one with old world markings made new. I know; watched you, followed you as you made the delivery. The machine in it spoke, and the spears that had slept below the Divide listened. You brought it here, sealed the Divide into history."

"What do you…" Layla trailed off. 'Old world markings made new.' Enclave. She remembered making a delivery here with Enclave markings. She'd treated the thing like it had been made of radioactive poison and had asked for clear documentation that the NCR had ordered the delivery. It was supposed to be some top-secret tech from Navarro. She hadn't stayed long after she made the drop, but that had been the last time she'd seen the Divide intact.

"It… What was it?" she asked, dread starting to build.

"Old world device," Ulysses answered. "Simple on the outside, complicated inside. A detonator."

Layla felt like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on her.

"W-who would make an automated detonator?" She asked out loud. "Why would anyone..?"

"Enclave, America's twisted remains," the man growled. "Know nothing but death for any unlike them. Would gladly kill a hundred of their own if it killed a few of their enemies. I was there when the earth ripped apart and the sky fell. Like Hell had come to take Earth.

"The machine sent information into the Divide, robots started making themselves. They saved my life, healed me after the explosions nearly killed me. Must have been the symbol on my back, thought I was of old America, like them.

"The machines aren't complete; clones of the original, complete model," the man continued. "The real thing has so much more. Information it doesn't even know it has."

Layla was vaguely aware of her brain trying to tell her something, but the shock of this information was starting to settle in.

"You've come far enough, Courier, you and your machine."

"What do you mean?" Layla managed.

"I need the information on that machine. The copies didn't have it. Encrypted. Have to get it directly."

Layla wondered what he was talking about. She suddenly remembered ED-E mentioning the eyebots in the divide were copies of him.

"You're not getting ED-E," she growled.

"Wonder what it is to you. Companion? Slave? Weapon? I'll dismantle the machine to get what I need, but leave it aware as I fulfill its purpose."

Layla stared, wide-eyed. Something in her snapped. She opened her mouth to tell Ulysses she was done listening to him. She was taking ED-E and getting the hell-

"Big Mountain access code… Ulysses," he said before she could speak, and ED-E suddenly jerked violently. The eyebot started shaking in the air and beeping like he was scared.

"Are you okay?" she asked, taking a step toward him. The thought of ED-E having an override code was disturbing, but it didn't seem to have affected him much.

"Command Override: Navarro," Ulysses continued.

Just as Layla reached the eyebot, he let out an strained buzz and turned her way. Before she could ask again what was wrong, ED-E fired.

The blast caught Layla directly in the chest, knocking her down. She tried to gasp the air back into her lungs, but they didn't seem to want to respond. She was dimly aware of the sound of ED-E's panicked whistling as he zoomed away. Then she lost consciousness.

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading! We should be back to normal posting on Saturday. Please leave a review if you've got a moment :D<p> 


	6. The Divide

She was being… dragged? Layla opened her eyes as she felt herself being pulled by her legs. Wherever she was, it was very dark, too dark to make out what was happening.

Trying to kick her legs free, she felt the hands on her ankles tighten their grip. Whoever was dragging her picked up their pace, and her head bobbed painfully over a chunk of cement. Reaching a hand to her head, she found her hair had come loose and she'd lost her 1st Recon beret.

She heard loud, rasping breathing and figured her luck had gotten lost along with the hat. The dragging stopped, her legs were released, and she sat up. There was something in front of her, something… big.

With shaking hands, she reached for her Pip-Boy and turned on the light. Before her was a tunneler, but it was double, maybe triple the size of the largest she'd seen. It also had much larger spikes than the others, with long bioluminescent streaks on the tips. It hissed when the light hit its eyes and turned its head. Layla could also make out piles of human bodies scattered about. There were other tunnelers as well; smaller, normal sized ones, shredding at some of the corpses.

So that's what happened to the bodies that had disappeared. The tunnelers brought them here, to their nest.

Looking back at the huge one, Layla was pretty sure the light from her Pip-Boy was making it shy away. For a moment, she thought she could just slip away while it was confused. She reached for her bag. If she could get one of her flare guns…

Her bag was gone. All she had on her was the .45 in her holster and a spare clip shoved in her pocket. The big tunneler, the one Layla was starting to assume was a queen, given the mounds of what she assumed were egg sacks attached to the walls, turned her way and howled.

Drawing her gun, she fired once at its head. Layla was pretty sure she'd hit, but the creature gave no indication that it felt anything. Scrambling to her feet, she made to run in the opposite direction, only to find her way blocked by at least five huge, hulking tunnelers.

She shot one's head off before it could move and dodged as another came flying at her. The remaining four bullets in the first clip were gone a moment later as another one charged her. She shot most of its leg off in the salvo, but that didn't stop it as it kept dragging itself forward. She heard another howl close behind her and nearly fumbled loading her last clip.

The queen was right at her back. Before she could raise her gun, it slammed its huge, taloned arm into her. She flew into a slab of concrete that may have once been a wall. The impact dazed her, and it took a moment to realize she'd lost Joshua's gun when she'd been hit.

The queen closed the distance to her as she tried to stand. It knocked her back down and slammed a foot down on her torso, holding her in place.

Layla had always hoped she'd meet her end with dignity, but as the tunneler queen opened its horrifying, fang-filled mouth, she squeezed her eyes shut and screamed.

It took her a moment to realize she hadn't been attacked. For a fraction of a second, she wondered if she'd been killed and just hadn't felt it. Then she heard the thundering booms coming from the darkened cavern.

Opening an eye, she found the queen still pinning her, but its attention was on something further away. Then something hit the creature, and it let out a deafening shriek, falling back and off her.

Layla didn't waste the opportunity to get up and look for her gun. She didn't really expect to find it, but there it was; a light shining in darkness. Scooping it up, she barely had enough time to shoot a hulking tunneler that came rushing at her. The queen hadn't come back her way; she was running toward the opening of the cavern. Whoever had shot her had pissed her off.

Layla aimed at the huge creature and fired. She must have connected somewhere painful, as the tunneler reared up with a deafening roar. Before she had time to recover, another blast from the mouth of the cavern knocked the queen off her feet. She didn't get back up.

"Hello?" Layla called, barely registering how small her voice sounded. Some panicky part of her realized that it might have been a marked man firing those shots.

Just as she was about to find cover, someone stepped into the dim light from a broken but miraculously lit street lamp. Layla saw red wool, then couldn't make out anything else as her eyes filled with tears.

"Boone!" she cried, limping in his direction. Stumbling over a tunneler corpse, she nearly fell, but the sniper closed the distance and caught her. She buried her face in his chest and felt him wrap his arms around her tightly.

For a moment, Layla thought she was dreaming. She'd had dreams like this before, but her leg was killing her; her whole body, actually, and Boone had his shirt on.

"How did you find me?" she asked, starting to remember she'd left him with a note that didn't explain anything.

"You left your letters from Graham out," he said, "and there was a trail of these leading to you." He held up a 45. case. "And this." He dug in a pocket and produced her 1st Recon hat. She took it, feeling more relieved than she expected as she stuffed it into her armor's inner pocket. "Found your bag," he continued. "The axe's in pieces."

Layla frowned. She'd have to go back to Big Mountain and see if she couldn't find a new one. She opened her mouth to thank him, but it died on her lips when she got a good look at his stony expression**. **

"Why did you leave without me?" he said, and she could hear the anger and hurt in his voice.

She'd known the next time she saw him there was going to be trouble. She just hadn't expected it to be here, in the middle of the fracas. It was going to be hard to convince him that everything was fine when he'd just shot a gigantic monster off her.

"I… this…" She backed out of his arms while collecting her thoughts. "I had to do this on my own."

That clearly hadn't been the answer the sniper wanted. He fixed a hard look on her before speaking.

"Thought we were partners."

That hurt, even if it was valid.

"We are, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you. This… this was all long before I even knew you."

"Carla was before you…" he said. "So was Bitter Springs."

Layla grimaced; he was really twisting the knife. She tried to think of a way make him understand. This had been her life long before the Mojave.

"I didn't want to drag you into this; it's my problem."

"You're my problem," he said, sounding angrier.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Layla shot back as a burst of irritation caught her. "I didn't tell you to come out here."

He was glaring at her now. "That thing was about to kill you."

"I…" She couldn't deny that. But she didn't want to concede the point either. "I could have handled that. You didn't have to come here." Layla ignored how childish she was sounding. "I was doing fine before this."

The sniper shook his head. "This isn't a joke. You nearly died," he said stiffly.

"Well thank you, I'm fine now," Layla bit out. "You can go back home."

"I'm not leaving you here alone." He paused. "I love you."

She gaped at him for a moment before responding. "You can't bring that up in the middle of a fight!"

"Too bad."

"Well I love you too!" she said.

"Doesn't matter, I-"

"Doesn't _matter_?" Layla cried.

"You know what I mean."

Layla's face twisted, and she looked away. She still wanted to say that he was overreacting, but if he hadn't shown up, the tunneled queen would be chewing on her right now. Yet she still wanted to tell him he could go right back the way he came because she still needed to finish this, alone. But she realized she wanted him to go so he wouldn't see this. See what she'd done.

With that realization, coupled with the angry, accusing face he was making, she burst into tears. She felt arms wrap around her and looked up. Boone's face was unreadable as he pulled her to him, gently stroking her hair. She didn't deserve his gentleness or love, not now.

"I did this," she managed between sobs. "This is all my fault."

"What?"

"I-I delivered a package here once, it was an Enclave detonator. It set off all the warheads underground. If it hadn't been for me, the NCR could have sent reinforcements. They would have taken the Legion out after the first Dam battle. Everything that's happened since is my fault."

She started sobbing harder, pressing into his chest.

"Searchlight and Nipton are my fault," she cried, "and Nelson, and Cottonwood and Station Charlie and … and." She gasped, starting to hyperventilate. "Oh God, Carla and the baby. M-my fault. My fault…"

"Layla," Boone softly, "it's okay, calm down."

"Not okay," she moaned, "I- I did this."

"No you didn't," he said. "Just breathe." He rubbed her back through her armor. "It's okay," he murmured.

Layla didn't have many comprehensible thoughts for a while as she cried.

*.*.*

"… Are you hungry?"

Boone looked up; that was the first coherent thing Layla had said in a while. He'd led her out of the cavern and into a small building that was mostly intact, not wanting to stay in the creatures' lair with some of them still crawling around.

"Yeah," he admitted. He hadn't stopped moving once he'd picked up Layla's trail. A brief flash of the tunneler queen crouched over her struck him, and he silently thanked whatever had guided him on that trail quick enough.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out what had happened; he'd known she was upset about something. The note she'd left hadn't been enough to go on, but Graham had been writing her about the Divide. Boone knew she had some history with the place, and going by what the Burned Man had written, it sounded like she'd told him she was going.

Once he arrived, he'd found the .45 casings and fresh blood. He'd been focusing more on finding her than how he'd felt about her leaving without him. Once she was safe, he finally realized how angry he was. She'd almost gotten herself killed coming here alone. He didn't want to think about what he would have found if he'd gotten there a moment later.

Looking over to the girl, he found her rummaging through her bag, pulling out a few small brown packets.

"Old world MREs," she said as she held them up. "Meal, Ration… Eats?"

"Meals, Ready-to-Eat," Boone corrected. "Sometimes when we went deep behind enemy lines, they'd issue them."

"Oh." Layla sounded slightly disappointed. "I thought I was gonna surprise you."

The sniper felt a grin tug at his face. "Didn't expect them here; they're pretty good."

"Yeah," Layla said. "I had one already."

A few minutes later they were warming up two meals and starting to trade from their packets.

"Umm…" Layla looked over the items on her lap. "I'll trade you the peanut spread for the cheese goo… and my mints for your gum."

Boone nodded, then looked over what he had. There wasn't much else he had of value.

"Can I try one of those candies?"

Layla looked at her pile. "Oh, the chocolates?"

"Yeah… never had any."

"Of these? Or chocolate in general."

"Chocolate."

Layla gaped at him. "You've never had chocolate?"

"No." He frowned at her reaction. It wasn't a big deal. The Courier went back to digging in her pack, then tossed him another full bag of the candy.

"This was from my earlier one. It's all yours."

"You don't have to do that-" Boone started, but Layla cut him off.

"Take them," she said sternly. The sniper shrugged and pocketed the candy. Layla stared into the pile of packets in her lap, then looked around the hollowed-out building they were camped in.

"I lived near here…" She sounded like she was fighting back tears. "I'd go back and forth with mail. Eventually got other people to go with me. A caravan had set up a route with the general store. We were starting to get more people staying…" She trailed off and dumped the packets of food in her lap into her bag.

"You have to eat," Boone said sternly. Layla looked up at him, tears welling up again. Just as he was about to move over and wrap his arm around her, her eyes cleared.

"_ED-E_!" she shrieked suddenly, bolting to her feet. "We have to rescue ED-E!"

"What?" Boon asked, just now remembering that she'd taken the eyebot with her. "Where is he?"

"Ulysses did some kind of override on him," she explained as she started gathering up her things and stuffing them back in her bag. "He got it from… FUCK," she jabbed a thumb at the scar on the back of her neck.

All Boone knew about this Ulysses was he was a frumentarius that Joshua Graham had specifically warned Layla about. There had been a few other written notes with the letters. By the looks of it, he hadn't been active in the Legion for a while.

Layla gathered the two meals they'd just warmed up and tossed one to him. "We gotta move. I've got a very bad feeling I know what Ulysses has planned for ED-E, and we can't let it happen."

"What is it?" the sniper asked as he shrugged his pack over his shoulder.

"Most of these missiles are still active."


	7. The Courier

Boone wasn't used to walking in silence with Layla. The girl had been quiet, tense, and far more alert than usual. The Divide was dangerous, so the Courier being on her guard was good thing, but her sudden change was starting to make him worry.

The Courier's face was grim as she planned their next move. Boone felt like he had to do something. He walked over and laid a hand on her shoulder. The girl jumped, then turned his way.

"Hey," he said, "are you okay?"

She gave him an incredulous look, not responding right away. After a moment, she sighed.

"No."

"Wanna talk about it?"

That brought a smile to the girl's face for a moment, then she grinned mischievously.

"You doing your Layla impression again?" The smile left her face as quickly as it came. "I'm not going to insult you by complaining about innocent blood on my hands. I'm not okay, and I… don't know…" She let out a deep sigh, then looked him in the eye. "How do you live with something like this?"

Boone frowned. Layla hadn't done this. It had been an accident. He didn't think he'd be able to talk her into thinking of it that way. He couldn't imagine what he would have done if someone had tried to tell him the same thing after Bitter Springs.

She was still looking at him, waiting for an answer. Boone tried not to think of how her expression had turned slightly hopeful, like he'd say something that would make the guilt disappear. He wished he could, but he couldn't even think of anything to say that wouldn't make things worse.

Still at a loss, he did the best he could; he pulled her into his arms. Layla wrapped her arms around him tightly, and after a few moments, he felt her sobbing against him.

He ran his hand over her back, wishing he could get his jumble of thoughts together enough to help her. All he could think about was when Carla's old mutt had died soon after they'd moved to Novac. She'd been beside herself, and he hadn't been able to think of anything to say then either.

'_Just hold me, you big dummy_,' she'd eventually said in a tear-filled laugh.

It was about all he could do for Layla too, at least for now. The girl was starting to calm down as it was. Boone kept rubbing her back as he watched the area, just in case of trouble.

The path beyond the tunneler cave led to an open area, where two deathclaws had been waiting for them. Boone was fairly certain no one was going to believe that Layla had shot a deathclaw's head off with one round.

Eventually, Layla determined they had to get to a bunker opening in the rock face above them. The twisted fallen buildings provided a path, even if it had been difficult picking their way through it.

The overturned building they stood on was now a walkway of holes made by open windows. Things had been pretty quiet since they took out the deathclaws, with the exception of a few marked men snipers. They'd been easy enough to take out, even if shooting at a man in the remains of an NCR uniform made him hesitate.

As Layla's sobbing grew quieter, a glint of light caught his eye further up the building. Something was shimmering only a few meters away.

Boone quickly pulled Layla down behind a chunk of concrete. He grabbed the shotgun off the Courier's back as her eyes scanned the area to see what was happening.

Leaning around the side of the concrete, he barely had enough time to fire a round into the stealthed attacker before he was on top of them. The stealth field gave out, and a heavily armored marked man with a huge blade came into view.

The man let out a howl, staggering back from the shotgun blast, then swung down at Boone. The sniper barely managed to avoid the swing, which glanced off the concrete.

Boone twisted around to shoot him again and saw Layla darting around their barricade to pepper the marked man with her .45. Between their efforts, their attacker quickly fell.

The Courier looked at the downed Marked Man with a frown.

"Sorry… I wasn't paying attention…"

Boone shook his head. "It's okay, I was."

Layla gave him a small smile, then held her hands out for her shotgun. Boone gave it back, and the girl strapped it to her back and sighed.

"Let's keep going."

The sniper nodded, and without much more trouble, they were able to reach what appeared to be a maintenance door.

"I think this is another silo…" Layla said, dread in her voice. Boone merely nodded, and they crept through the building, making little noise as they walked, careful of mines or robots. Eventually, they came to a window overlooking a maintenance bay. Layla looked over the room and gasped.

"ED-E!"

Boone saw the sentry bots in the room start moving as she shouted. He crouched under the window, pulling her with him.

"He's in one of those pods," she whispered rapidly. "I can't tell if he's online or not. We need to go-"

"Layla," Boone said firmly, "we need to get past the sentry bots and turrets first."

The Courier groaned. "And of course my axe is broken." She sighed. "We'll have to do it the old fashion way."

Before Boone could ask if she had a plan, her shotgun was off her back, and she was keying the terminal which opened the doors a moment later. The sniper scrambled through after her, slinging his auto-rifle off his back.

Boone had to admit that whatever had happened to Layla at the Divide seemed to have improved her combat sense; she put herself between two sentry bots and a turret, blasting one bot as the turret ripped the other apart. Boone quickly shot the other turret, disabling it as the Courier brought her shotgun to bear on the last one.

Layla didn't stop to admire her handiwork, instead moving toward the terminal near the eyebot pods. She frowned at the screen and after a few moments, keyed in a command. The pod holding ED-E spewed steam. By the time Boone's vision cleared, the robot had floated out of its containment.

"ED-E!" Layla cried. Are you okay?"

The eyebot beeped and sputtered, then a voice crackled through his speakers.

'_Next week on RALPHIE, the incredible robot's odyssey!'_

'_RALPHIE, hurry!"_ came another voice, this one a child._ "If mean old General Winters catches you, you'll never get home!'_

There was a trill of whistles before the boy continued.

'_No RALPHIE, fly far fly fast_!'

'_Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!_' the announcer cut in. _'Next Thursday, only on Vault channel 9!'_

Boone raised an eyebrow as he looked at Layla. The Courier gave him a small grin and shrugged.

"He's been doing that lately." She turned to address the robot. "Ulysses must have had an override function piggybacked on that broadcast." She gave the robot a knowing look. "And all that extra code you've been picking up probably had something blocking your firewalls."

ED-E beeped sadly at that.

"Stop that; of course we weren't going to leave you behind," Layla soothed, "Do you know what Ulysses is up to?"

The robot answered with a negative-sounding buzz.

"Well, we…" she trailed off at the robot moved to a panel on the wall. ED-E hovered for a moment, then blasted a dish on the top with a bolt of energy. The panel slid open, revealing a pneumatic tube and a computer display.

"Oh, thanks ED-E," Layla said as she stepped over to the machine. "Do you need any ammo?" she asked Boone.

"Sure," he responded, going over to see what was available. He wasn't one to turn down fresh supplies. Layla had already bought out the .45 and 10mm ammo, and Boone cleaned out the .302 and .50 cal. ED-E whistled happily as Layla gave him a pat.

"We better keep moving," The Courier said to him, and the robot warbled in agreement.

There wasn't much else to this area of the silo except an elevator that led to 'Missile Control.'

"This is probably going to be it," Layla said as she hit the call button. She sounded calm, much more so than Boone expected. "Are you ready?"

He nodded, still worried about her.

*.*.*

The elevator opened onto a huge room. The floor didn't reach to the walls; there were lower platforms surrounding the central platform full of machinery and nuclear missiles. The warheads lined the walls, haphazardly leaning from their stacks. At the back of the room was a platform with an old world flag strung up. Below the flag, a man stood at a console, facing away from them.

She took a few steps in, then jumped as a pair of eyebots flew overhead toward the center of the room. As they reached the man, a floor panel in front of him opened.

Layla started to run as she saw a missile rise from the panel, urgency pushing her on. She came up short at the stairs of the platform; the man had turned her way.

"Even here the shadow of the NCR falls." She recognized his voice immediately, though she'd already known who he was. "Maybe it's you… and your shadows. Corpse of the bear and machine. No matter that you came; the Divide's spears are awakening. The missiles here on their way home, there is no way to stop them."

Layla felt her stomach drop into her knees. She'd known the whole trip in what this was coming to, but to have it confirmed made her feel ill. He planned on launching the still-active missiles. She saw Boone aiming his rifle at Ulysses and grabbed his wrist to stop him. There was good chance he'd done something to stop anyone from tampering with the launch. She didn't want him dead before they could find out.

"The Divide was an accident," she said to him. "What you're doing here is madness." Ulysses regarded her with hard eyes for a moment before speaking.

"No. Here there is purpose. I believe you when you say it was an accident. What I do know is an act of conviction."

"If you blame me, let me answer for it, not others," The Courier cried. She saw Boone's face turn her way out of the corner of her eye, but she kept her attention on the man on the platform.

"Blame you? No, learned from you. You showed me a road, a way to carry my message. You've already answered for what you've done. Now the flag you carry will answer for it."

"The Mojave?" she asked.

"No, the West. Bear grows without structure, follows a symbol without knowing its history. And knowing that you follow the bear, even knowing its sickness, giving it strength… then that gives me more reason to lay waste to your homeland, its capitol. Cut both its heads off."

There were more than a hundred thousand people in Shady Sands, but all Layla could think of was her brother and his family. She was dimly aware she was shaking as the thought finally finished processing. She had to get him to stop the launch.

"Even if you have no faith in the NCR, I do. My actions have proven it. You're the one who said one person can build a community and make it stronger. Well there are thousands more in the NCR that do the same."

The man's posture changed as his brows knit together. "Your actions have carried strength… But your type is not common in the wastes. The Bear is sick, dying, but slowly. You do not have enough strength for all of the NCR."

"I don't have to. The NCR isn't perfect, but it's better than the Legion, better than the wastes on their own and worth working to help. I'm not alone when I give it strength, just like I'm not alone now."

Ulysses looked thoughtful for a moment, then spoke, "It may be that as much destruction is here, written in the earth, you can build something else as you built the divide. You have spoken truly. There is a shadow of a nation behind you, the hope of a people. Yet it may not matter, the Divide still stand against us."

"What do you mean?" Layla asked. There was a loud whine of bending metal.

"The Divide's spears cannot be stopped now."

Layla was about to demand what that meant, but was cut off by a loud bang from the entrance.

"Someone's trying to force the doors," Boone said at her side.

"Our enemies gather outside. Shadows of the Bear and Bull. They will find their way in," Ulysses said. "It was always my intention, in case I could not kill you, to have the marked men flood this place, cut off your exit."

He stepped off the platform, pulling a rod with a bird on top off his back; it looked like a flagpole.

"If we cannot prevent what comes, let us make our last stand here."

Layla turned to face the doors, just in time to see them burst open. Dozens of marked men poured into the room, some wearing stealth boys, some with mini-guns and other heavy weapons, all heading their way.

Boone had already started in with his auto-rifle. Layla did what she could from this distance with her .45, but she wouldn't be very effective until they were closer. She heard a stealth boy activate behind her, and Ulysses disappeared. She felt a breeze go past as he ran by, his two eyebots trailing after.

Layla crouched behind a console, still shooting at the oncoming group. While she was effectively picking them off, none seemed to notice she was there.

At least, that was what she thought until she saw a marked man with a rocket launcher turn in her direction. Layla was barely able to leap away when a volley of rockets was launched in her direction.

She wasn't hit directly, but the force of the blast knocked her off the central platform to the floor below. Layla landed on the metal with a cry; the impact knocked the wind from her lungs. She lied still for a moment, waiting for the shock to wear off. Eventually, she was able to sit up slowly and look around. None of the Marked men had come down after her, so she took a moment to get her bearings back and reload her gun.

Frantic beeping came from above her, and she looked up to see ED-E hovering her way.

"I'm okay," Layla answered the robot. "Just got knocked down. We need to get back up there."

ED-E warbled at her as they started up the stairs. By the time they'd scrambled back to the thick of the fighting, Boone and Ulysses seemed to have cut down most of the attack force, aided by Ulysses eyebots. Just as the thought crossed Layla's mind, one of the robots caught a rocket and exploded.

Layla barely dodged the debris, then started firing at the marked man who'd hit it. Between her shots and the arc of electricity ED-E shot its way, the marked man went down.

The Courier looked around as she heard a strangled cry. She saw three more marked men advancing on Boone, though he didn't look injured. She headed over, .45 firing as she went. Their combined efforts put the ghouls down quickly.

Layla finally noticed the room had gotten somewhat quieter; there didn't seem to be any marked men left.

She felt a hand on her arm and turned. Boone nodded toward the platform the missile control platform.

Layla gasped. Ulysses was sprawled on the floor, bleeding from numerous bullet wounds. Rushing over, Layla scrambled for her medical supplies.

"Don't bother," the man said as she reached him. "My story is over. Didn't think you'd survive this. Neither of us. Fitting for my end to be here, where it should have ended before."

Layla didn't respond. Ulysses was right; he wouldn't survive. He'd taken several shots to the torso. Most of his organs had to have been perforated. She didn't have the ability to save him.

"Wish I could tell you how to stop the launch. It's locked. The encryption can't be broken." The man coughed, and blood splattered from his mouth. "You could change the target. Legion's capitol, Flagstaff, already programmed in."

He must have caught Layla's confused expression at that. "Thought about sending the missiles there… Caesar, the Desert Fox, they betrayed my people after we helped them take Arizona."

"Caesar and Vulpes are dead," Layla said. The man laughed.

"Heard rumors about Vulpes… another service to the West. A monster with many faces. But-" he started coughing again, "joining them in hell. Joining history… "

He closed his eyes, and she felt for his pulse. He was gone.

Layla was surprised at how his death affected her. She stood and pulled down the old world flag hanging above the platform, laying it over the man.

"Layla," Boone called, "ED-E found the missile controls."

She hurried over and looked at the panel. This was it, all right. She could see the target already set up; the coordinates to Shady Sands. She started going over the command functions when ED-E's speakers crackled to life next to her.

'_Experiment log 369248/A – Eyebot Duraframe universal interface override system. This is Dr. Whitely presiding._

_Initial tests of the override system are promising. Against unsecured or light-encrypted targets, eyebots have a 98% success rate._

_More heavily protected systems are still problematic. Military grade encryption presents a very real possibility of critical overload of key systems._

_We've stopped tests before any robots were destroyed, but if we don't address the problem our eyebots will fry themselves hacking military networks.'_

"What does that mean?" Boone asked from her side, and the robot whistled.

"Are you… are you saying you can stop this missile?" Layla asked. The console had to have some of the highest encryption the Enclave could manage.

"It'll kill you!" she sputtered. The robot whistled an affirmative to her.

"No, no, I can … there's got to be something I can do…" There was really only one option: divert the missile somewhere else. The problem was she didn't have any coordinates for unpopulated areas. She'd have to-

ED-E beeped sadly at her, and she looked up at him.

"What?" Boone asked.

"He wants to stop the missile."

The sniper didn't answer, neither did Layla. A moment later, the robot knocked into her shoulder.

"If this is what you want…" Layla managed to croak. The robot warbled.

"Thank you, ED-E," she said, "And goodbye."

The robot beeped determinedly and rose up to the interface dish. He started playing a dramatic sounding song over his speakers and send a data blast into the console.

There was a loud rumble; whatever the eyebot was doing was affecting the whole silo. ED-E blasted the console again, and more warning klaxons started going off. He sent another burst of information, and there was a popping noise from the eyebot as he started smoking. Layla could smell burning wires.

His hovering mechanisms struggled to keep him in the air. The song playing on his speakers slowed and distorted as he blasted the dish again. The robot's servos squealed, and he jerked in the air. The robot shuddered again and exploded.

"_ED-E!_" she screamed. There was nothing left of him but one of the little satellite dishes that had been among his antennas.

She was vaguely aware that the missiles had started to sink back into the silo. There were distant explosions from underground as some of the sirens stopped wailing.

Layla sunk to the ground, sobbing as she reached out for the scrap of metal. It was still hot; she barely noticed as she clung to it.

"Layla," Boone called, "we have to move. The silo's falling apart."

She barely registered what he'd said. A moment later she felt the sniper's hands as he pulled her up. He took her hand and started leading her out of the room as the silo shook with explosions.

* * *

><p>We will conclude 'The Message' next Saturday. The last story will be announced then as well. Thank you for reading.<p> 


	8. The End

The wires hanging from the ceiling sparked as they swayed into each other. Boone kept looking back to make sure Layla didn't knock into the still live wires as they made their way through the destroyed Hopeville Silo.

The last of the warheads had been dismantled. Layla had refused to leave the Divide until they were all disposed of. It had taken a few extra days, but after scouring the area, all the nukes had been destroyed with the detonator she'd found.

Layla had also insisted on double checking the silos. The facilities had been destroyed when ED-E had deactivated the missiles. They'd also checked the area Layla had accidentally nuked; it had been a crater filled with marked men and deathclaws. They hadn't stayed long, especially while Layla's Pip-Boy's Geiger counter went crazy. She'd told Boone she'd had radiation trouble at the Divide already.

They were leaving the Divide now, following the path they'd taken to get there. Boone moved up to the door leading out of the silo, and Layla hesitated.

"You can see the whole Divide from out there…" she whispered. Boone nodded, waiting patiently for her. Eventually, she took a deep breath and stepped out.

They stood on the lip of a canyon overlooking the Divide. All he could see were ruined buildings twisted together, surrounded by deep gouges in the land.

"_Like God himself had struck the land down_," The Burned Man had said in one of his letters.

The Courier stared out into the chaos beyond them, as quiet as she'd been for the last few days. The silence worried Boone, but he knew she needed time.

"Ulysses wanted to do this to Shady Sands…" she finally said. "I'm glad we stopped it."

"Didn't take much to change his mind..." Boone noted.

"Everything he'd gone through warped him," Layla answered. "Losing his tribe to the Legion, living through this destruction… It must have been too much. I don't think he knew what he wanted out of this either way. Just wanted to see what would happen."

Boone frowned. The maniac had nearly killed tens of thousands of people. And now because of him, Layla shouldered the guilt of everyone who'd died here. The damage was so bad it was hard to think they'd ever been a community here, and Layla would always hold herself responsible for it. He looked at her again and found she still hadn't moved.

Stepping over to her, he wrapped his arms around her. She looked at him, sorrow in her eyes.

"I love you," he said. It was all he could do for her now. Her face shifted through a few different emotions before she pressed herself into his chest.

"I love you too," she whispered, then paused. "What do I do with this?"

"You made a mistake…" he started. The looked like she was going to interrupt him, but he pressed on. "… One that can't be taken back. You can learn from it and move on, do good for people, or you can throw yourself off a cliff and be no good to anyone."

Layla looked back up at him, and he found himself relieved to see a small smile on her lips.

"There should be laws about throwing people's words back at them," she grumbled, giving him a slightly mischievous look. "Do you memorize everything I tell you?"

"No one could remember that much," he said, then grinned when she gave him a playful shove. Letting go of him, Layla looked back to the Divide again. The mirth left her face, and she sighed.

"Let's go… There's nothing left here." She looked like she was going to turn away, but lingered. Suddenly, she dug her binoculars out of her pack and peered through them.

"What is that?" She pointed to something moving further down the ravine. Boone pulled the rifle off his back and looked through the scope. An eyebot was hovering their way. It looked no different than the dozens of others he'd seen all over the Divide.

"Eyebot. One of Ulysses,'" he answered, frowning when he saw her bite her lip. He knew a tear-stopping attempt when he saw one. A few moments later, the robot floated up to them, chirping merrily.

"Um… yes?" the Courier asked when it stopped in front of them. It whistled in response.

"What?" she gaped.

"What is it?" Boone asked, eyeing the robot suspiciously.

"H-how could that be?" The girl asked it, ignoring his question for the moment. "Prove it," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. The robot whistled at her insistently. Layla started to smile, but it suddenly faded as she looked unsure. The eyebot floated closer and knocked into her shoulder insistently.

"ED-E!" the Courier cried, reaching out and hugging the robot to her chest.

"What?" Boone asked, confused.

"He transferred all of his data into another eyebot. He's like a robo-clone." She clung tightly to the robot until it gave an annoyed beep, then released it to hover beside her.

Boone looked closely at the eyebot, not sure if he trusted it.

"Go on," the girl prompted. "Show him."

The eyebot rose in the air and turned his way. A moment later his speakers crackled to life.

"_This is probably a bad idea,"_ Layla's voice rang out.

"_Shhh."_ Boone recognized his voice next, then the sound of rustling cloth. _"If someone catches us…"_

"_They won't if you shush,"_ Layla's recorded voice giggled. _"Besides, ED-E's keeping watch."_ A few muffled sounds of movement followed, broken by an occasional giggle, before the recording cut off.

"_ED-E!"_ the Courier shrieked. "You erase that right now!"

She chased after the robot as he whistled frantically.

*.*.*

Colonel Hsu looked up from his desk when he heard a knock at the door. "Come in," he called, and was surprised when the Courier entered, followed by Specialist Boone. Layla usually didn't bother knocking, preferring to sneak in and scare the hell out of him.

There was definitely something wrong with the pair as they walked somberly into the room. Layla sat at the chair across from his desk, then looked like she was struggling for words.

Hsu let her take her time; he could tell that whatever this was about, it was bad. Eventually, the girl reached under the collar of her armor and pulled a chain off her neck. It turned out to be several chains, all with dog tags. Boone pulled another handful from one of his pockets and set them on the desk next to Layla's.

The Colonel stared at the pile for a moment. It looked like somewhere between twenty and thirty sets of tags. He looked back at Layla.

"Where did you get these?"

The Courier was silent for a moment before answering.

"The Great Divide."

Of the places he had expected, that was probably the lowest on the list. He looked at the tags, not recognizing any of the names.

"What were you doing there?"

She looked like she hadn't wanted that question either.

"I was lured into a trap," she answered, sounding a little defensive. "It all worked out… but we found these."

"Is it safe to go there-"

"No," the girl said quickly. "No, it's not safe."

Hsu looked at the dog tags for a few moments. He was sure the families of these people would be happy to get closure. But no one had come back alive from the Divide since its destruction.

He was going to have to be very careful about how he worded his report on this. Otherwise the brass was going to have some questions that it looked like the Courier didn't want to answer.

Layla's face had taken on a stony quality. Boone's normal neutral expression was in place. Hsu sighed.

"I'll take care of this. Thank you."

Layla nodded, still looking as dour as he'd ever seen her.

*.*.*

"I know they're not what RALPHIE had… but they'll make you look like you again…" Layla said, picking up the license plate from the pile of ED-E's old parts.

The robot hovered silently for a moment, then whistled at her. Layla smiled.

"Yeah, and you know how much better some of this equipment is. I'm sure if we sweet talk the Followers, they'll work up some more improvements for you too."

The robot whistled in agreement this time, and the Courier laughed.

"Yes, the robots of the world need you as handsome as before. Now come over here and let me put this back on."

The robot landed on the kitchen table, where Layla took off his access panel. She turned the machine off and started reinstalling his older gear.

As she worked, she thought of how happy she'd been to see the robot again. His destruction would have been awful to deal with. Another layer of misery to go with the rest of the Divide.

She suddenly felt tired, like she didn't have any strength left in her entire body. She lowered her head, resting it on the robot. It suddenly felt like too much effort to keep herself upright.

An entire community was dead and gone. They'd been her friends, the Divide her home, and she'd been responsible for destroying it all. Thinking about the enormity of it made her chest tighten until she could barely breathe.

"Hey."

Layla looked over to find Cass and Arcade at the kitchen door.

"You okay?" the caravaneer asked.

The Courier shrugged, not picking her head up from the robot. She wasn't too surprised with the concerned looks pointed her way. There had been a panic after she'd left, primarily because Boone had left a note that only read '_Layla's missing. Going after her_.'

Well, it wasn't his fault. It was hers for leaving in the first place. Cass had looked like she was going to strangle them both when they'd come back.

Now the woman looked like she was trying to think of something to say. Neither Layla nor Boone had said much about the events in the Divide. The Courier wasn't sure she wanted to tell everyone the truth. The thought made something inside her twist slowly and painfully.

"What are you doing to ED-E?" Arcade eventually asked. Layla looked at the robot under her face.

"Putting on some of his old equipment. This new body's not as advanced as the old one."

"What happened to his old body, exactly?" the doctor asked, sounding innocently curious. Layla saw through it, however; they were just trying to get her to talk.

The question lingered in the air, until she felt something snap. She sat up and started talking before she could stop herself.

"I was lured out by a frumentarius disguised as a courier who tried to launch nukes at Shady Sands with codes that were programmed in ED-E. He had to blow up his original body to stop the launch. And it turns out I destroyed the Divide."

She glanced up at their shocked faces for a moment, then looked away. Some part of her was trying to convince her she didn't care what they thought. In an effort to keep her hands from shaking, she went back to installing ED-E's parts. No one spoke until she reinitiated the eyebots systems.

"What happened to the frumentarius?" Arcade eventually asked.

"Dead."

"Are you okay?" Cass asked. Layla looked at the other woman, feeling a grimace spread over her face.

"I spent most of the time I was there pulling the dog tags off the ghoulified NCR troops who'd been driven mad from when the place exploded and pulled off all their skin. No. I'm not okay."

They were silent again, probably not used to the Courier being so blunt. Layla wasn't used to it either; but it was easier not caring about what they thought.

"Well that's it then?" Cass demanded, "You're just gonna be a bitch from now on?"

Layla felt her mouth fall open. Arcade looked like he was planning to back out of the room.

"I… you… what?" the younger woman sputtered.

"If that's the case, I think I'll take the rest of the pay you owe me for that whole war thing. I'm not sticking around if you're gonna piss and moan forever."

"Y-you're leaving?" Layla gaped. "But… you…" She dissolved into tears. She felt arms wrap around her a moment later and looked up to find Cass squeezing her.

"Let it out," the caravaneer said in a motherly tone. "It's gonna be okay."

Layla couldn't stop herself as she sobbed into the other woman's arms.

"You and Boone should write a book on blunt-force psychology," Arcade said to Cass as Layla felt him put a hand on her shoulder.

"Sometimes you just need to hear the truth without any bullshit," Cass said.

"What happened?" Veronica's voice rang out a moment later.

"Touchy-feely bullshit," Cass said. "Go on, this is your job."

Layla looked up to see what the older woman was talking about and found Boone moving to wrap his arms around her as Cass let go. The Courier let her head rest on his chest, then smelled chewing tobacco. Boone had been into his emergency supply again.

"I'm gonna be okay…" Layla started, then grimaced. "This is just a lot to deal with."

"Just don't turn into a bitch," Cass said on her way out.

"Well if I do, it's because I learned it from you," she shot back.

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed "The Message." We'll be starting the final story, "As It Was and As It May Be" on the 19th!<p>

Oh, and I've started a Layla-based ask blog on tumblr, if you're into that kinda thing, the link is in my profile.

See you in two weeks, for the _**Final Story!**_


End file.
